


The bet

by Zinony



Category: Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Cartoon 2018)
Genre: Action, Adventure, Humor, Slice of Life, except romance and tragedy, honestly it's a mix of a little bit of everything, just fyi the author doesn't know how to tag
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-12
Updated: 2020-09-04
Packaged: 2021-03-02 16:53:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 24,315
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24150118
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zinony/pseuds/Zinony
Summary: After finding new enemies, Leonardo and Raphael make a bet without suspecting that their little game would get them and their brothers involved in a world of mystery and secrets. Many questions will arise as they explore the new world but the most important is: who will win the bet?A story based on the scenes shown in the teaser trailer and the "Behind the scenes" video of Rise of the TMNT.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 22





	1. Strangers in the sewers. (Part I)

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this story with the solely purpose of fun and it's heavily based on the scenes shown in the teaser trailer and the "Behind the scenes" video of Rise of the TMNT.
> 
> This story can also be found on Ffnet (I'm Nonyx there), but it's still incomplete due to some health issues I've been dealing with since the last 12+ months.

"Who are these dudes? And what are they doing?" the youngest of the four siblings, Michelangelo, softly whispered.

"Don't know who they are, but they seem to be taking those junks of metal to somewhere," his brother, Leonardo, answered in a low voice.

The brothers had been wandering around the sewers, playing tag and other games, when they had spotted movement ahead of them. Since they were quite far from where the action was taking place, the siblings could only distinguish several human-looking figures running at the same direction. That itself was an interesting event. It was rare to find a person in the sewers, let alone to find an army of funny-looking people. So, naturally, the curious turtles had approached in order to get a better idea of what was happening there.

Now, hidden behind huge stone pillars that were part of the subway infrastructure, the four turtles were watching the bunch of moving figures who were near the entrance of an abandoned tunnel. The ones who went inside the tunnel were carrying large pieces of metal, while the ones who came out from it were empty-handed and, as soon as they looked around to make sure the coast was clear, began running away in all directions.

"Whatever they're doing, it doesn't seem like it's something good," Donatello stated, narrowing his eyes.

"I was thinking the same thing, bro," the oldest of the four, Raphael, said. He turned around to see his brothers and smirked. "I say we should get there and find out what's going on with those clowns. They probably need us to bust their heads," he concluded, cracking his fingers.

His younger brothers exchanged glances while a grin slowly made its way to their lips.

"It sounds like fun," Michelangelo said, his eyes lightening up. "I'm definitely in!"

"I'm in, too," the purple-clad turtle declared, arching an eyebrow and smiling. "I'm intrigued about what they're planning to do with all of those pieces."

Both of them quickly joined Raphael's side and then turned around to see their blue-clad sibling, who was tapping his chin in a thoughtful way.

"Alright," Leonardo said with a shrug. "Since there's nothing more interesting to do right now, then I'm in too."

Raphael and Donatello rolled their eyes at that statement while Michelangelo covered his mouth, trying to supress a giggle. They all knew Leonardo was as much interested in participating on the mission as they were, but he was playing it cool by saying that line just for the sake of teasing them.

"Then, mister 'Nothing-more-interesting-to-do-right-now', bring your shell over here or you'll get left behind," Raphael teased his brother before turning around and beginning to move towards the suspicious figures, followed by Michelangelo and Donatello.

"Get left behind?" With a swift movement, Leonardo joined his brothers and looked at Raphael with a smug smile plastered on his face. "Oh, so does this mean we're switching roles, big brother? Then I'll try to be the slowest one, but you'll have to try your best to be faster than your usual self."

Raphael frowned and gave his younger brother a playful punch in the shoulder. Leonardo chuckled and held his hands up.

"Okay, okay, just kidding, you know?", the blue-clad turtle said, grinning. "Anyway, what's the plan, Raph?"

"First, we'll get inside the tunnel to see where they are taking that junk to and what they're doing with it. Then, we'll punch them really hard," Raphael answered, making a fist with his hand to emphasize that idea. "Or viceversa. Whichever works best."

This time Leonardo was the one who rolled his eyes and smiled. Of course there were plenty of plans that were _way_ better than the ones his brother had just said, but he opted to keep silent. Things tended to be more interesting if there were unpredictable variables in the mix, didn't they? Plus, even though he did enjoy giving his older brother a hard time, it didn't necessarily mean he had to annoy him every single second of the day. After all, he had to be considerate with his two other brothers. They deserved the chance to annoy their oldest sibling too.

And so, the four turtles continued moving towards the suspicious people, always keeping in the shadows and hiding behind the boulders and pillars that were in the place.

When they were a few feet from the entrance of the tunnel, the red-clad turtle made a motion with his hand to signal them to stop. Since the place was quite dark, they could only see the general stuff, like the people's movements and what they were carrying, but specific things? They couldn't. Luckily for them, they had a genius brother on their side. A brother who was always full of useful techy stuff that he built with his own hands and who was now confidently smiling because he knew it was time for him to do his work.

Donatello put his goggles on and began evaluating their possible opponents. Thanks to the night vision feature of his techno-goggles, he found some familiar marks on the metal pieces that those people were holding. However, something else caught his attention…

Was it just his imagination, or were they wearing the typical clothes of a…?

"What do you see, Donnie? Should we send them directly to Painland or not?" the oldest turtle asked in a low voice, obviously not wanting to be heard by the figures and interrupting Donatello's train of thought.

"Mmm… I think we probably should," the genius replied absent-mindedly, moving some buttons that were on one of the sides of his goggles. "But… there's something really odd about these people…"

His brothers looked at him with questioning eyes and waited for the explanation they were sure Donatello was going to give them. The purple-clad turtle fiddled a little bit more with his goggles before he took them off and met his siblings' gazes.

"First of all, do you remember last week's news report about some factories that had been robbed?" the intelligent turtle asked and his brothers nodded, paying all of their attention to his words. "Well, I'm ninety nine percent sure that we've found the culprits. These people are carrying several metal pieces with the trademarks of said factories painted on them…"

"Great! Then let's…!"

"However," Donatello continued, as if he hadn't been interrupted by Raphael, "those people are —how should I put it?— _definitely_ not normal."

"Not normal? So I guess four _mutant_ turtles talking about normalcy _is_ something _completely_ normal, right?" Leonardo mumbled in a barely audible voice and Donatello ignored his comment too.

"But why do you say they are not normal, Donnie?" Michelangelo asked with curiosity, popping his head behind his purple-clad brother's shoulder and squinting his eyes in order to have a better look at the figures. "Do they have an extra head or something?"

Donatello arched an eyeridge and was tempted to give an answer to his sibling's questions, but… Nah, he'd rather not. Instead, he reached for his youngest brother with his arm, placed him at his side and put his own goggles on his sibling's eyes. His brother gasped in surprise and Donatello couldn't help but half-smile.

"Dude!" Michelangelo exclaimed in a low voice as he leaned forward, not believing what he was seeing. "They're… they're ninjas!"

"What!" Raphael and Leonardo asked in equally surprised whispers and turned their heads at their siblings' direction.

"What you heard, guys. We'll be dealing with ninjas." Donatello shrugged. "Though that's not the odd thing about them. While using the thermal imaging feature on my goggles, I found out that their body temperature does not correspond to that of a human's. It's much, much lower."

His brothers gave him funny looks —Michelangelo with the goggles still on his eyes—, and the purple-clad turtle could almost hear the 'And we should care because…?' question that had surely popped up on their minds. He was about to give them a detailed, informative and very educational explanation about why that fact was important, but Raphael cut him off before a word could escape from his mouth.

"I just wanna know if that's something important for the fight or not, Donnie!"

The genius looked at his older brother, unfazed, as he retrieved his goggles.

"I can't tell for sure—"

"Great. I'll take that as a 'No'. Come on, guys!" Raphael said as he jumped into action and lunged at the figures. Leonardo made a quick motion with his head towards the tunnel, a clear invitation for his younger sibling to follow him and do a coordinated attack. Michelangelo accepted with an enthusiastic nod and both of them followed their eldest with a grin on their faces.

Donatello stayed in the back for a few seconds, shaking his head in amusement and thinking about his brothers' antics, before he began moving too.

_Ah, brothers._

* * *

Inside of the tunnel there was almost no light.

Almost.

At ten yards from the entrance, there was a vault formed on the upper part of the tunnel. This vault was relatively small when compared with the surrounding infrastucture and it could easily go unnoticed _if_ it were left in _complete_ darkness. However, in that particular moment, the faint, small flickering orange light that was glowing weakly in its center gave right away the position of such perfect hiding spot to anyone who were paying enough attention to every darn feature of the tunnel.

Not that it really mattered to the figure who was standing on one of the beams that criss-crossed the vault, though. Since there weren't any beings other than his ninjas and he himself in that abandonded passage, he didn't have to worry about revealing his current position.

Arms crossed in front of his chest and surrounded by an impassive aura —despite the frown on his face—, the figure continued supervising every single movement his ninjas were doing, knowing that _nothing_ could escape his eyes from up there.

 _Good._ Everything was going according to the plan. While some of his ninjas were transporting the stolen material through the tunnel and the portal that led to the Underground, others were coming out from it and were heading to the outside to get some more. Soon, his ninjas would have gathered everything the Master had instructed them to get for his plan and the figure couldn't help but think about how pleased his lord was going to be when he heard the results of this mission.

Suddenly, the movements of his ninjas changed, and the figure instantly directed all of his attention to them.

Something wasn't right.

Instead of moving swiftly and in a well-organized way —like they were supposed to—, his minions were now moving erratically, as if someone or something were disturbing them and didn't let them carry out their job properly.

His gaze followed the lines of his ninjas, trying to find the reason of such change in their behavior. There, at the entrance of the tunnel, some kind of turmoil was taking place, but he couldn't see what exactly was happening in there.

He narrowed his eyes and his frown deepened even more.

Nothing, _absolutely nothing_ , was going to turn this mission into a failure. Not now and _definitely_ not on _his_ watch.

He analyzed the situation in order to decide his next move. On one hand, the entrance to the Underground was to never leave his sight, so he couldn't personally go to where the turmoil was. On the other hand, he needed to find out what was causing such trouble in his lines so that he could take action on the matter.

He briefly pondered this before a solution came up to his mind. Well, there _was_ a way to know what exactly was happening without him abandoning his current position, although it wasn't like he was very fond of resorting to that particular option. Nonetheless, he raised an arm and summoned _the_ _Shadows,_ the widely-known grand masters of stealth and espionage who had an incomparable ability to retrieve information without being detected.

From the corner of his eye, he could see the familiar pair of black blurrs creeping up the tunnel's walls and ceiling, and a ghost of a smile appeared on his face.

The Shadows had quickly answered his call.

With an energetic motion of his hand, he gave them a silent order:

' _Go. Find out the cause of the commotion in my lines.'_

And as one, the Shadows would start moving at his command.

Or at least that was what they were supposed to do, because in that very moment the Shadows were already on the move and had almost reached the entrance. A fact that meant his instruction had been rather pointless.

 _Ugh._ Once again, their ability to anticipate orders had made them jump into action even before they were instructed to do so. A quality highly appreciated by the Master, but not by him. _Never_ by him. On the contrary, that specific trait of the Shadows irked him a lot, because it usually let them be one step ahead of him, and, worst of all, it was their subtle way of defying his —and pretty much everyone else's— authority. However, he couldn't openly complain about it because it had been proven to be quite useful countless of times.

He stopped that train of thought when a pair of red eyes showed up in front of him. As usual, only one of the Shadows had returned to deliver the information, while the other kept assessing the situation.

 _Strangers, fighting the ninjas._ Came the soundless report in the characteristic way of the Shadows to convey messages. _Skilled, but without much experience in real combat. Might slowdown the mission._

Strangers, huh? An evil smile crossed his face as the figure allowed himself to enjoy for a few moments the mental image of him getting rid of the nuisances who had dared to interfere with his task. Unfortunately, his Master had made it very clear that the mission had to be carried out without drawing unnecessary attention from the people of the surface. After all, the Underground was to remain as a secret, at least for now.

So, would killing those outsiders attract unnecessary attention? Yeah, it certainly would, but oh, how much he would enjoy it! However, he didn't want to be held responsible of prying eyes going down there and accidentally finding the way to the Underground. No, he wouldn't allow it. He just _couldn't_ allow it. That was the reason why he had ordered his ninjas to flee and not engage in combat if anyone tried to stop them.

Having considered all of this, the skilled warrior made up his mind. The material was going to be delivered no matter what, and the outsiders were going to be lead away from that place.

There was no time to waste.

He leapt from the beam and landed soundlessly on the ground. He looked around to see all of his minions before he made a sign with his hand and, immediately, all of the ninjas that were carrying material sped up their pace and began disappearing through the entrance of the hidden world. Then, the warrior gave other silent instructions to the rest of his minions.

 _'_ _Block the outsiders until our cargo is safe and lure them away from here. Then, spread out and disappear.'_

In the blink of an eye, a swarm of ninjas started moving towards the entryway with agile movements and the warrior just spared them a glance before a thought crossed his mind.

Supplies. He had planned getting more supplies for his army because the next part of his Master's plan was going to be carried out soon. He wasn't going to have enough time to gather everything if they didn't get at least some of them that day.

He weighed his options and decided he could take a slight risk in order to gather what he needed. He took out a small, pellet-like object from his clothes and threw it to the ground. A thin curtain of smoke appeared before him and when it dissipated another group of ninjas was found standing in front of him.

' _Retrieve supplies for the army and leave no evidence of your presence,'_ were the default commands he always gave out, but since this time the circumstances required it, he found himself giving additional instructions. ' _If necessary, engage in combat, but only on the surface. And if anyone follows you up to this point of the underground, then...'_

He stopped for a brief moment while he considered if he should give the last order or not, but in the end, he made a final motion with his hand.

 _'_ _Eliminate them. This time, no witnesses can be left alive.'_

The ninjas bowed slightly and then they began moving. The warrior saw them blend with the bigger group of ninjas before he turned around and headed to the Underground.

When he had almost reached the entryway to the secret world, he felt the Shadows' gazes on the back of his head. They were following each of his movements as if they were expecting him to do something else.

He gritted his teeth. _What_ did they want _now_?

He was about to turn his head towards the Shadows, when both of them presented themselves before him.

 _Get rid of the strangers. Now._ One of them told him without a single word.

It wasn't an advice, nor a suggestion. It was an _order_.

The warrior, despite feeling annoyed because _he_ had received an order from _them_ , continued walking, not showing any kind of emotion and blatantly ignoring the Shadow's command.

 _Now._ Pressed the other Shadow.

In that moment, he stopped in his tracks and turned his head towards them.

 _Oh_ , so _they_ wanted to give orders to _him_? Well, then he would have to remind them _who_ was in charge.

The warrior raised a hand and turned it into a fist, commanding them to return to the Underground. He inwardly rejoiced when he felt the Shadows shifting with unease and irritation, as if they were debating whether to disobey the direct order or not. He was certain that if they decided to ignore his instruction, they still wouldn't be able to do anything because, even if they were the Eyes and Ears of the Master, they didn't have any authority over his ninjas _and_ they lacked the necessary fighting skills to engage in combat.

The Shadows hesistated for a brief moment, but in the end they decided to obey, as he had expected. He saw them pass next to him in the form of a blurr, heading to the Underground, not without giving him a final warning.

_Fine. You'll regret it._

The warrior let a smile cross his face as he stepped down to the Underground and made the entrance to the secret world disappear.

No. Of course, he would not.

* * *

Meanwhile, on the outside of the tunnel, the turtle brothers were trying to fight a bunch of highly-annoying, seemingly-coward, elusive ninjas.

Big emphasis on _trying_.

After jumping into action, the brothers had tried following the pretty obvious winner option of Raphael's Great-And-Thoroughly-Thought-Plan-To-Find-Out-What-Those-Strange-People-Were-Doing-In-The-Sewers: Option B, punch first and ask later. A quite simple plan that only required them to wield their weapons with mastery and to throw several kicks and blows. No big problem. They knew how to do that.

However, had Option B been successful at stopping the criminals? No, not in the bare minimum, because, truth be told, the siblings hadn't been able to deliver one single strike to their opponents.

Why? Well, the blame could fall on one simple fact. Instead of making a counterattack after finding themselves caught under a surprise attack —like all proper villains would do, mind you—, the ninjas seemed reluctant to fight back and were only avoiding the blows.

Figures. Some criminals.

Nonetheless, the siblings kept trying to stop the thieves.

Michelangelo lashed out his kusari fundo, aiming for one of the ninjas who were carrying a metal piece, but missed him just for a few inches because the rascal had sensed the attack and had moved out of the weapon's way.

The young turtle made a pout before he swirled his kusari fundo again. The next time, he wouldn't miss!

Only that, well, he did.

"Is it just me or these dudes are really difficult to hit?" Michelangelo asked loudly as he swirled his weapon and tried to strike another opponent, but failing. "Hey, Leo, how many have you already managed to hit?"

"Counting this one?" the blue-clad turtle said as he swung his odachi towards a ninja that jumped backwards in order to avoid being struck. "Not even one. How about you, guys?"

"Haven't had any luck so far," Donatello answered at the same time he swiftly moved his techno staff to right and left, noticing that their opponents were moving faster than before.

"They… are… such… cowards!" Raphael grunted, marking each word with a punch that unfortunately didn't connect with any thief, while his mind tried to come up with another plan. "Okay, guys! This isn't working! We need to…"

He didn't finish his sentence. The sudden sounds of lots of feet coming from the tunnel had gotten all of his attention and he tensed his muscles, anticipating the upcoming battle. His brothers, after hearing those noises too, gathered around their leader and prepared for combat.

They didn't have to wait for too long before an incredible amount of ninjas came out from the tunnel and positioned themselves between the tunnel and the turtles, assuming stances that clearly showed they were more than ready to attack.

"Be ready, guys. And stand your ground," Raphael muttered to his brothers as he surveyed the ninjas who were now looking intently at them, not moving at all.

The tension grew between the ninjas and the brothers. Both groups stood still for a few moments that felt like an eternity.

And then, the ninjas lunged.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **_Author's note:_ **A friend told me about this site, so here I am posting this story. I hope you've liked the first chapter so far!
> 
>  ** _About the story:_** As previously stated, this story is heavily based on the teaser trailer and the "Behind the Scenes" of Rise of the TMNT. This chapter was first published on June 15th, 2018, on Ffnet and it was my own way to share my excitement for the new show.  
> I consider this fic as an 2018 AU because the show hadn't aired yet at that time. I guess it's a mix of what I'm expecting the show to be, what I'd like to see in the show, what I think the show will be according to the info I got from the art reveal & other sources, etc. So be warned, the turtles' personalities might be a bit different from the actual show.  
>  ** _About the Shadows:_** I don't know if they're gonna be actual characters of the show or not. If they are, they might have different abilities and/or roles than the ones I've given to them in this story. And if they are not... well, they exist in this story. All I can say is that the idea of the Shadows came up to my mind after seeing a little detail in the teaser trailer.
> 
>  ** _Author's babbling note:_** Don't share any spoilers of RotTMNT, pretty please? I haven't been able to watch the show, so I'm avoiding spoilers like the plague. D: Thanks in advance!


	2. Strangers in the sewers (Part II)

_'Stand your ground,' his brother had said._

_Stand._ Your. _Ground_.

Yeah, that's what he wanted to do in that very moment: to _stand_ his _ground_ , but that was something a _little_ bit difficult for him to accomplish because he wasn't really _standing_ nor his feet were on the _ground_ anymore —two facts that made the blue-clad turtle feel highly frustrated.

Leonardo narrowed his eyes as he looked at the opponents who were now surrounding him. Obviously these people didn't know what the meaning of _personal space_ was, or maybe they took the meaning of _close combat_ too seriously —but only the _'close'_ part of it. Either way, he was going to make sure they learned the correct meaning of those two terms… Once he could get free, that is.

The only problem was that he had no idea of how to do the latter since he could barely move at all. He was currently trapped in an ocean of ninja bodies who were pushing him backwards, and, as embarrassing as it may sound, they were sort of carrying him —which was the reason why his feet were dangling above the floor. That fact alone had hurt his pride more than he would ever admit, so he was eager to stop that ridiculous situation as soon as possible.

_Okay, time to come up with a plan._

Leonardo began considering his options quickly. Headbutting his opponents was discarded by default —it would be pointless due to the amount of ninjas who were in the place and, besides, he'd rather keep his neurons intact, thank you very much. Kicking the ninjas was not an option either because he couldn't move his legs freely, and as tempting as the idea of punching those people was, that option required him to have one or both of his arms free, which sadly was not the case. His left arm was pinned to his plastron and his right arm was nowhere to be seen since it had been caught in between the mass of ninjas and after a few moments it had gone numb —he just hoped it was still attached to his body, though.

So, the option that was left was asking for help. He turned his head to his right side and saw that Donatello was in a situation similar to his own. The only difference was that his brother's hands were free and… was he using his tech bo staff to give electroshocks to his opponents?

Cool. He didn't know his genius brother had that little trick under his sleeve.

However… that trick didn't seem to be having an effect on the ninjas...

_Why?_

Leonardo frowned, mirrorring his brother's expression without realizing it, and stored that bit of information in the back of his mind. Then he craned his neck to the front and saw that Raphael was circled by a great number of ninjas that, interestingly enough, weren't attacking him. Instead, they seemed to be provoking his hot-headed brother and he was responding with powerful strikes.

Oh, good news. Big Brother Raph was available and he could ask him for help.

"Raph!" the blue-clad turtle called. "A little help, please?"

Raphael turned his head to where his brother's voice had come from. When he saw that two of his siblings were in trouble, he let out an angry roar and began moving towards his brothers, delivering punches to whoever was in his way.

Leonardo smiled.

Yep. Leave it to good, ol' Big Brother Raph to come to the rescue. The blue-clad turtle couldn't help but think that once his brother pulled him free from such ridiculous situation, he would team up with Michelangelo and both of them would—

_Wait a minute…_

"Leo! Donnie! Where the heck is Mikey!" the red-clad turtle asked, voicing Leonardo's thoughts while at the same time throwing a punch that sent a bunch of ninjas flying across the tunnel.

"I thought he was right behind— Oof!" Donatello didn't have time to finish his answer because the army of ninjas had increased their speed once more and, consequently, had slammed themselves against the younger turtles.

"Hold on, guys!" Raphael said, running after the ninjas with powerful strides.

It wasn't an easy task for the red-clad turtle —the clowns in pajamas were such a hindrance—, but he was able to close the distance between him and his blue-clad brother. When he was a few ninja bodies away from his sibling, he saw Leonardo make a strong movement with his left arm to push the rest of his opponents away from him, freeing himself in the process.

The leader continued advancing and extended his arm when he passed by Leonardo's side. The younger turtle quickly grabbed Raphael's bicep with one arm and flung himself up. Then he crouched down and began searching for any sign of their orange-clad brother.

"Thanks for the lift, big brother," Leonardo said without looking at Raphael, but the red-clad turtle could perceive the smile on his brother's voice.

"No problem, Leo," Raphael said as he changed direction and moved towards Donatello while using his free arm to shove aside the ninjas who were blocking his path. The oldest turtle glanced sideways to make sure that his brother was alright and frowned when he saw Leonardo's right arm hanging at his side. "What happened to your arm? Are you hurt?"

"Huh? It's nothing," Leonardo said, dismissively. "My arm went numb, that's all. In a few moments it will be alright."

"Are you sure?" Raphael said, narrowing his eyes.

Leonardo rolled his eyes and turned his head to look at his brother with a cocky smile on his face.

"I'm fine, really. If I weren't, I wouldn't be able to hold a grip on my sword. See?" He said, pointing at his right hand, which was closed firmly around the sword's hilt. That seemed to convince his older brother, so the blue-clad turtle returned his gaze to the swarm of ninjas and continued his search for Michelangelo.

Fortunately, he quickly caught a glimpse of a three-fingered hand and that was all he needed in order to know where his youngest brother was.

"Found Mikey. I'm going for him," Leonardo announced as he put his odachi on his back.

"Okay. Once I get Donnie, we'll regroup and then we bust some heads, understood?" Raphael said.

"Loud and clear, sir," the blue-clad turtle said, raising his hand to his forehead and flashing a mischievous grin. Then he leapt from Raphael's arm and began jumping on the ninjas' shoulders so that he could get to Michelangelo's position.

The ninjas didn't seem to notice Leonardo at first, but after a few moments, when he was about to land on the shoulders of another ninja, the blue-clad turtle saw a hand that was clearly waiting for him to land in order to capture him. Leonardo adjusted his body in the air and landed away from it, but when he jumped again, an army of hands raised up and began clawing at him as he descended.

 _Great._ _Just great._

Leonardo increased the speed of his jumps, not willing to be captured, but that wasn't enough. A hand closed around his ankle when he landed on a ninja's head and, immediately, the young turtle knew he was doomed.

' _Oh, not again_ ,' was what Leonardo thought while he was being dragged down.

* * *

Meanwhile, Raphael was still making his way to reach Donatello, focusing so intently on getting to his brother that he didn't notice when the swarm of ninjas entered a part of the sewers where several tunnels interconnected. He also failed to see that his enemies were splitting up in smaller groups and were dissappearing in those tunnels.

When the red-clad leader reached his brother and helped him get free, the genius turtle wasted no time to make his battleshell turn into some kind of flying machine and got out of the ninja army's reach.

"Ugh… too much social interaction for me," Donatello complained from above. "Thanks, Raph."

The red-clad turtle nodded as a response, not taking his eyes from the ninjas. The criminals had stopped and turned around when the purple-clad brother had gotten free from their grip and now they were facing him. Raphael could read their hesitation in their movements, like if they were considering whether to attack or not, but before he could take a step towards them, the ninjas began running in the direction of the tunnels.

"You think you can escape, huh?" Raphael smirked as he began chasing the ninjas with Donatello following him closely.

However, when they reached the entrance of one of the passages where the ninjas had entered, both turtles stopped and their eyes grew wide.

It was empty.

"Where did they go!" Raphael exclaimed frustrated, punching the wall.

Donatello landed next to him and kept silent for a few moments, not knowing how to answer his brother's question. Then he turned around and moved away from the tunnel.

"So what's the plan, Raph?" Donatello asked.

The red-clad turtle huffed.

"Now we'll regroup with Leo and Mikey," Raphael answered. "Then we'll track those thieves and finish them."

"Um, you know? There might be a little problem with the first part of that plan," the purple-clad turtle said, and that statement made Raphael turn around and look at his surroundings.

They were alone in that place. And there was no sign of their two other brothers.

* * *

Leonardo couldn't see what was happening around him. There were too many clothes blocking his sight and considering that he was being tugged and pushed in different directions, it was no surprise that he could see nothing more than gray and black blurs.

Fortunately for him, the turmoil didn't last for too long.

Unfortunately for him, it ended with him feeling a foot connecting with his face that threw him off balance and sent him to the floor.

Leonardo stayed on the floor for a few seconds, waiting for the dizziness that was clouding his head to disappear. When he felt better, he sat up and saw that the ninjas had dissapeared from the place.

_The idiots._

He absent-mindedly rubbed his cheek, trying to ignore the throbbing pain he felt on the right side of his face. The next time he saw them _…_

"Duuude…" A familiar voice said behind his back. "Now I know how the people feel when they take the subway during the rush hour…"

The blue-clad turtle couldn't help but chuckle before he turned around. Michelangelo was a few feet away from him, and was currently lying on the back of his shell, looking at him with a half-grin on his face.

"Seriously, that was the wildest thing I've ever experienced! And I'm not sure I wanna repeat it ever again!"

"Well, does this mean you don't wanna ride the subway anymore, Mikey?" Leonardo asked, arching an eyeridge and smirking.

"Of course I still do, bro! But if I ever get the chance to ride it, I'd rather do it in the safe way. I'd be going on top of the train!" Michelangelo said with a mischivieous smile, and Leonardo laughed as he stood up.

"Come on, Mikey, get up," the blue-clad turtle said, looking at his surroundings and realizing those were relatively unfamiliar tunnels. "Let's go find our brothers."

"Sure, bro!" the youngest said, making an acrobatic movement in order to stand up and went to his brother's side.

Both of them began walking through the passages and, during all the time, Michelangelo kept babbling about their recent experience while Leonardo nodded or gave his opinion about it.

"Those people were insane, dude! Insane! Did you see how they charged at us? They didn't even flinch when we struck them with our weapons!" Michelangelo exclaimed. "What if they have superpowers that allow them to receive blows and not feel any pain? What if they are supervillains, like in the comic books? Oooh, that would be so cool! Because that would make _us_ the heroes!"

Leonardo took into consideration what his brother had just said. Not the 'superpowers' and 'supervillains' parts, though, but the part about the ninjas not even flinching when a weapon or fist connected with them. _That_ was certainly something weird.

Nonetheless, that fact wasn't the only strange thing about those ninjas. These opponents had proved to be fast enough to avoid the blows that were thrown at them, yet during the last part of the fight they had decided to receive strikes without even trying to block them.

Another weird thing about them was that they had had the opportunity to beat him up pretty badly should they had wanted to —they had had the numbers and the closeness to do so—, but instead they had seemed contempt with…

_Oh…_

So _that_ had been their plan: to drive them away from the abandoned tunnel rather to engage in a fight.

Leonardo frowned. He could understand why the ninjas had driven them away from the tunnel —they probably didn't want anyone to interfere with their criminal agenda, right?—, but he couldn't understand why they hadn't fought even when they had had the upper hand. Not that he wanted to get his shell handed to him, though.

Still, that didn't make those people any less weird.

However, the thing that puzzled him the most about those ninjas was their seemingly lack of fear… like if they didn't care if they got themselves hurt or killed.

Leonardo had realized that when the ninjas had collided full-force with him, not in the least concerned about the fact that he was holding a big, sharp sword at that time. He had barely had enough time to move his odachi out of the way so that the idiots didn't end up with a sword in their stomachs —hence why he hadn't been able to defend himself in the first place. His intention had been to stop the criminals, not to _kill_ them.

The blue-clad turtle sighed.

Sure, those opponents intrigued him a lot and there were several things he couldn't quite understand about them.

One thing was certain, though. Those ninjas were a _complete_ headache.

"Dude, what was that!" Michelangelo's voice distracted Leonardo from his thoughts and he looked at his brother, who was pointing at something ahead from them.

"What? I don't see—"

"It moved!" Michelangelo exclaimed and yanked his brother from the arm and began running towards a tunnel.

They both stopped at the entryway of the tunnel and peeked at its inside. There, standing in the middle of the passage, was a solitary figure, who was turning his head to the sides as if making sure no one was following him.

"No way! It's one of those dudes!" Michelangelo whisper-shouted and his brother put a hand over his mouth.

"Shh!"

Luckily, the ninja didn't seem to hear them. Instead he continued to move his head from side to side before he began moving again.

"Let's follow him!" Leonardo whispered and Michelangelo nodded. The two brothers quickly hid in the darkness and began shadowing the ninja from a safe distance.

When they reached an intersection of tunnels, another ninja appeared and joined the one they were following. Then both thieves increased their speed and entered another tunnel.

Leonardo and Michelangelo started running, not wanting to lose their targets, when suddenly…

"Ooof!"

"Ouch!"

They both collided with a solid, living wall of muscles that sent them backwards to the ground.

"Watch it, you two!" Raphael angrily said, standing in front of his siblings. It was obvious he had not been affected by the collision.

"Oww… my nose!" Michelangelo whined, rubbing his face. "I think you owe me a nose, bro!"

"If he owes you a nose, then he owes me a face," Leonardo grumbled as he shook his head.

"Oh, shut up," the red-clad turtle said, taking his brothers by the edge of their shells and pulling them up. "We gotta move! Those criminals are escaping!" And with that, the leader took off after the ninjas.

The two huffy turtles were about to follow their brother when a soft chuckle coming from their right side made them turn their heads in that direction. Next to them, their purple-clad brother was covering his mouth with a hand, clearly amused by the scene he had just watched, and they couldn't help but glare at him.

"Ahem…" Donatello cleared his throat, as if trying to mask his chuckle, and took a quick glance at his tech wristband. "Oh, look at this. Those ninjas went this way," he said, flashing a guilty smile to his brothers before heading to where Raphael had gone. This time his brothers were the ones who chuckled and followed him.

When they caught up with their eldest sibling, they found him fuming and pacing.

"I can't believe it! Those morons dissappeared again!"

Donatello rolled his eyes good-naturedly and put a hand on his brother's arm.

"Yes, Raph, they might have dissappeared now, but we can find them again. You _do_ remember that I put a tracking device on that ninja, don't you, Raph?"

"Tracking device? Did you really say _tracking device_? What tracking device?" Michelangelo asked, his eyes shining.

"Yeah, what tracking device?" Leonardo quickly went to Donatello's side. "Have you got new toys, Donnie?"

"Eh, not really. I just haven't had the chance to use these babies. Until now." Donatello casually said with a confident smile, showing to his siblings several small shell-shaped devices that were on his hand.

"Oooh! Wooow!"

"Cool!"

"I was originally planning to use these babies to help me find my inventions in case they got lost in the sewers during a test," Donatello explained. "However, when we got separated from you two, we found a ninja —the one we were chasing before we found you— and began following him, hoping he could lead us to you. Since we didn't want to lose him, I put one of these on him. And now we can monitor his location."

"Oooh, Donnie, you are AWESOME!" the orange-clad brother exclaimed, launching himself to his brother and embracing him with his arms and legs. "See, Leo? We're like heroes going after supervillains!"

"Yeah, yeah. Excellent explanation, Donnie, but we can't waste more time chit-chatting! Are we going after those ninjas or what?" Raphael asked.

Donatello arched an eyebrow.

"Fine, Raph," he said and looked at his wristband. "Follow me, guys."

And so, the four brothers began running through the sewers once again.

* * *

"Are you sure they went topside?"

"Yes, I know for sure they went topside."

The four turtles looked at the manhole that was over their heads and then looked at each other's faces.

"So…" Michelangelo began. "What do we do now?"

"We keep following them," Raphael said, heading straight to the ladder. "We're gonna stop those criminals. Now come on!"

Michelangelo and Donatello looked at each other and shrugged before following their oldest brother.

"Oh, no. No, you won't," Leonardo's voice made the three turtles stop in their tracks and they turned around to see their blue-clad sibling crossing his arms and frowning. "Are you nuts or what? Topside?" He said pointing at the manhole. "Are _you_ really going _topside_?"

"Yeah, _we_ are going topside. _We,_ which means you're coming too," Raphael answered. "Got a problem with that, Leo?"

"Yes, I do, Raph. We've been told not to go topside, remember?" Leonardo said, deadly serious.

"Yeah, we were told not to go topside when we were _toddlers_ and that was a long time ago," the eldest said, moving away from the ladder and facing his younger brother. "So I say we go topside, and since I'm the leader, then we go topside. End of the discussion."

"Well, that argument doesn't convince me at all, you know? I think we should vote," Leonardo said and a confident smile appeared on his face. "If most of us vote to go to the surface, then I'll come with you. If it's the other way, then we all stay here in the sewers."

"Fine, we'll vote, Leo," Raphael smiled too, knowing beforehand that they would end up going to the surface. "The turtles who vote for going topside, raise your hand."

Donatello, Michelangelo and Raphael quickly raised their hands. The eldest looked at Leonardo with a smug smile.

"Then it's settled," he said. "We're going topside."

"Okay," was the only thing Raphael could hear before he felt a light weight landing on his shell and then taking impulse to do a jump. When he turned his head around, he saw that Leonardo was already on the ladder and was quickly climbing it.

"Last turtle on the surface will do the winner's chores for a week!"

"Not fair, Leo!" Michelangelo exclaimed and quickly jumped on the ladder, following his brother.

"Ha! Let's see who wil be doing _my_ chores!" Donatello said, turning his battleshell into a flying machine and propelling himself up.

Raphael blinked repeatedly.

_What? What had just happened?_

And then realization struck him. It had been a trap! His younger brother had distracted him to get a good head start!

"You! You, little…!"

"Run, Leo! Run for your life!" Michelangelo laughed.

"I thought you didn't want to go topside!" the red-clad turtle roared and stomped at the ladder.

"Never said I didn't want to go topside!" Leonardo shouted over his shoulder, laughing. "Besides, someone had to _act_ as the responsible one. And guess what? I've got some impressive _acting_ skills!"

"I swear, when I get my hands on you, Leo…!" Raphael threatened, and only saw his blue-clad brother stick out his tongue at him as a response.

_Oh, he was so dead!_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **_A/N:_** I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Thanks for reading!
> 
>  ** _Author's babbling note:_** Mmmm... I wonder who were the 'strangers' in the sewers?


	3. The Warehouse

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The brothers are tracking down one of the ninjas they encountered in the sewers. What they don't know is that these ninjas are much more unique than they first thought.

Donatello had to admit it: the docks at night were truly amazing. The gigantic ships moored to the docks, the colossal ship-to-shore gantry cranes rising up high against the sky, and the smaller but powerful tugboats were only a few examples of the engineering marvels that could be found in that place.

Yes, the genius knew that, should he had the time, he would take a better look at the designs of those beauties, and maybe, _just maybe_ , he would disassemble them for the sole reason of admiring their motors, turbochargers, and wires. After all, _these_ were the real thing, the imposing machines that he'd been loving since he saw them in a book when he was a tot and that he still hadn't had the opportunity to build… yet. Mostly because they wouldn't fit in the sewers. And because they wouldn't be really useful down there. And _definitely_ _not_ because of that _particular_ incident that happened some years ago when he tried to build a 300-feet-tall rocket in the Lair — an incident that everybody had agreed to never talk about ever again...

_Ahem._

He hadn't built them yet mostly because they wouldn't fit in the sewers. Never because of the rocket incident. Really. Never.

_Bzzzzt… Bzzzzt…_

The faint vibration on his wrist distracted him from his thoughts and made the purple-clad turtle take a look at his wristband. The intermittent dot blinking on its screen told him they were approaching their target, and Donatello couldn't help but half-smile as he continued running through the maze of cargo containers that were in the docks.

Maybe today wasn't going to be the day when he would be able to take apart those machines but oh, well, he could do it any other time. Tonight, however, he would probably be able to take apart something else that had _quite_ piqued his interest. And that something was none other than the weird ninjas that he and his brothers had found in the sewers…

Okay, _technically_ he wouldn't be taking apart the ninjas _per se_ , but rather a piece of their clothing. He was pretty sure those clothes were made of some kind of material that was both an electrical and a thermal insulator — conclusions he'd got from the weird body temperature readings and the criminals' ability to withstand electroshocks — and boy, did he want to know its exact composition.

He looked at the screen of his tech wristband and his smile broadened.

 _Good._ It seemed he was going to get his sample soon. The ninja was not too far away from there.

The genius slowed down until he stopped behind a wooden cargo box. His brothers, who had been following him closely behind, quickly positioned themselves next to him. He turned at his right side, where Leonardo was crouched, and pointed at a dockside warehouse that was approximately at thirty yards away from them. Leonardo nodded in understanding and quickly took out his binoculars from his front belt pouch while Donatello put his goggles on, and both turtles focused their attention on the warehouse. Raphael, on the other hand, gave a quick glance at the building and then began scanning their surroundings to make sure no one approached their current position.

Some minutes passed by before the subtle sounds of someone approaching got their attention. Immediately, one of the brothers tensed up, and the purple-clad ninja took a deep breath, preparing for the upcoming events that were bound to happen…

"Oh, yeah, bro! No chores for a week!" Michelangelo exclaimed in a low voice, landing between Raphael and Donatello.

A resigned sigh was heard, followed by a soft chuckle.

"Shut up."

"What? You want me to repeat it again?" the orange-clad turtle beamed. "Okay, bro, I'll repeat it again! No chores for a WHOLE week!"

"I said shut up!"

The sound of a fist slamming on the wood didn't make the youngest turtle flinch at all. Instead, it made his smile grow wider.

"This means I'm gonna be free! For a WHOLE WEEK!" Michelangelo said, happily punching the air.

"I'm telling you, Mikey, I'm not doing your chores!" Raphael stated in a threatening tone.

"Oh, yes, you _are_ doing his chores, brother mine," Leonardo interceded, smiling but without taking his gaze from the warehouse. "After all, he won and you lost."

"Shut it, Leo, I never agreed to this!" the leader grumbled, glaring sideways to his brother.

"Well… you sorta did," the blue-clad ninja said, shrugging. "You never said you didn't want to participate in our race. Besides, three of us agreed on the terms..." He turned his head and met Raphael's glare with a smug grin. "Majority rules, brother. Just like in voting."

Raphael frowned.

"Remind me to strangle you after we finish with the criminals," he muttered under his breath.

Leonardo laughed softly.

"As if I were to remind you such thing," the turtle in blue said, casually leaning on the cargo box. "But I can remind you to do Mikey's chores… for a week."

With a growl, the eldest brother lunged at Leonardo and both went rolling on the floor, silently roughhousing with each other, while Michelangelo covered his mouth, muffling his laughter.

_Smack! Smack!_

"Gentlemen," the genius turtle said, swirling his tech bo staff and placing it by his side, "do I _really_ need to remind you that this isn't the right time to act childishly? We're after some criminals, so please concentrate."

Leonardo and Raphael rubbed their heads and looked at Donatello, who had already returned to his task. The two siblings knew better than to piss their brother off, so they quickly returned to their positions and focused their attention on the warehouse.

"Okay, then," Raphael began. "Mikey, your report."

The orange-clad turtle instantly straightened up and did his best to put on a serious face. After all, he wasn't looking forward to receiving a smack on the head too.

"There are no signs of humans in the nearby area," Michelangelo said, his voice exaggeratedly full of seriousness. "And on my way here, I saw like two or three of those dudes running to the warehouse, but that was it. Nothing else to report, sir!" he finished with his scouting report and glanced at Donatello. Since the genius didn't move, he breathed a sigh of relief.

"That's good," Raphael said, and then looked at his two other siblings. "And what about you, guys? What do you see?"

"Oh, I don't know. Maybe a warehouse and several cargo boxes?"

The red-clad turtle let out a breath as he ran a hand over his face.

"Donnie, could you…?"

_Smack!_

"Ow!"

"Thanks," Raphael said, ignoring Leonardo, who was mumbling something about the unfairness of answering correctly his brother's question. "Now I'll ask again: what do you see, guys?"

This time, Donatello was the first to answer.

"Well, the ninja with the tracking device is already inside the warehouse, but I can't see where he is or what he's doing," Donatello reported. "And from what I've seen, there are at least twenty other people in the building, so yeah, there's a possibility that we may encounter some trouble."

"Leo?" Raphael asked arching an eye ridge, not quite expecting his brother to give a serious answer this time either.

"Ninjas seem to be coming from the west and north sides, but east side seems to be clear," the blue-clad ninja dutifully reported. Obviously, he didn't want another smack on his head. "Sneaking through the windows is the best option if we want to get inside the building. And there's a ladder we can use."

"Good idea," Raphael nodded. "Now let's move!"

"Hey, wait a second," Leonardo said as he got up and tucked his binoculars in his pouch. "We already know where the criminal we were tracking is and we already know how to sneak in the warehouse, but I think we're still missing something…" He tapped his chin in a thoughtful way for a few seconds, and then snapped his fingers. "Oh, right, we're missing _a plan_ to defeat our opponents."

"A plan?" Raphael chuckled. "Who needs a plan when you've got these?" he said, turning his hands into fists.

The blue-clad ninja arched an eye ridge.

"You've _got_ to be kidding me, right?" he said in a deadpan tone.

Raphael smirked and turned around, heading towards the warehouse.

Nope, he wasn't kidding.

"Oh, come on!" the blue-clad ninja groaned, facepalming. Then he let out a resigned breath and turned to his genius brother with pleading eyes. "Donnie…" he said, gesturing towards the silhouette of their oldest brother.

"Don't worry, Leo," Donatello patted his brother's shell. "I'll make him listen to reason," he said with a reassuring smile on his face before going after their red-clad brother.

Leonardo and Michelangelo exchanged glances, wondering how their purple-clad sibling would manage to convince Raphael to come up with a plan.

_Smack!_

"Ow!"

Well, they didn't have to wonder for too long.

* * *

Donatello had some truly efficient convincing skills. Raphael now knew it. His brother had made him change his mind about plans, and he had even convinced him — with a little help of his bo staff — to agree that making a plan was actually not a bad idea.

So, after a brief discussion, the four siblings had come up with a quite simple course of action: sneak in the warehouse, cause some noise to attract the attention of a few ninjas and then bust their heads. Then repeat until all of the ninjas were defeated. Piece of cake.

Getting in the warehouse had been easy. Part one of the plan: Check.

Now, on to Part two.

The brothers were quietly walking through what seemed to be a labyrinth of huge paper stacks. Leonardo, with his odachi on hand, was walking in front of his brothers, followed by Donatello and Michelangelo while Raphael was covering their backs, holding his tonfas and ready to attack any fool who dared to sneak up on them.

Up until that moment, they had not seen any sign of the ninjas, but Donatello had assured his brothers the criminals were gathering in the front part of the warehouse rather than in the back part of it, where they were currently in.

"Why are they gathering in a paper warehouse?" Michelangelo whispered, quite confused. He turned his head in all directions and saw that there was nothing else than paper, paper, and… yes, paper. "The bad guys always have their meetings in cooler and darker places! Comics and movies say so! And I'm sure that's also an unwritten rule for villains!"

"I don't think they came here to have a meeting, Mikey, nor I think this is some kind of hideout," Donatello said, also looking at their surroundings. "They must be here for another reason. Maybe they want to steal some paper?"

"Yeah, but why would they do that?" Leonardo asked, more to himself than to his brothers.

"That's not important at this moment," Raphael grumbled in a low voice. "They can be stealing paper for their diary entries, for all I care! What I do know is that they're not here for any good reason and we must stop them."

The younger turtles nodded, agreeing with their oldest brother's statement and continued walking on full alert through the piles of paper sheets.

"So," the blue-clad turtle began, "should we split up in pairs or—?"

Leonardo didn't finish his question. A solitary ninja had given a turn around the corner of one of the stacks and now was standing a few yards in front of them.

The four brothers froze, not knowing what to do next. The ninja, who had already noticed them, seemed to be in a similar situation, and during those few moments of indecision, the siblings got a better look at their opponent. The thief was strong-built and dark clothes covered all of his body but the eyes. The orangish red footprint painted on his zukin and fukumen was what got their attention the most, but they instantly forgot about that detail when they looked at his eyes. A pair of asymmetric, eerie blue glows were replacing the ninja's orbs, and such characteristic was giving him a somewhat supernatural appearance.

" _Who_ _— No…_ What _are these guys?"_ Leonardo thought, not taking his eyes off the ninja and holding his sword with both hands as the thief adopted a fighting stance.

"Hey, wait! Wait a moment, please. There's no need to fight," Donatello said before anyone could move, his full attention on the ninja. He ignored the quizzical looks his brothers sent his way and gave a few steps forward with his palms up until he was next to Leonardo. "We don't want to hurt you."

" _We don't?_ Heh, I'm pretty sure I do— _Ooof!_ " Leonardo muttered before Donatello jostled him on the side.

"Listen, we don't want to fight you," the genius brother continued. "We just want to talk. A nice, little chat sounds good, isn't it?"

The ninja stayed silent, shifting his weight from one foot to another. Apparently, he was still debating with himself whether to attack the brothers or not.

After a few moments of silence, the ninja stopped moving. And then, he darted forward.

"I guess he doesn't want to talk!" Leonardo exclaimed and quickly put himself between the criminal and his currently-weaponless brother.

With a swift movement of his hand, he swung his odachi and the thief barely had time to evade the blow. But that was enough for the ninja to get near the sword-wielder and shove him aside. The blue-clad turtle could only register a white blur in front of him before he found himself buried under thousands of paper sheets.

"So much for talking, huh?" Raphael whispered to Michelangelo before lunging at the ninja, who was trying to land a blow on an elusive Donatello. The criminal didn't notice Raphael until it was too late — that is, when he got sent flying towards another huge pile of papers.

"And so much for attracting few ninjas…" Michelangelo added, and went to his eldest brother's side. He was sure the whole bunch of criminals that were in the warehouse would come to investigate what was happening there.

Meanwhile, a grumpy Leonardo was making his way out of the ocean of paper that had fallen over him. Those criminals were doing a great job to make his patience wear thin. Next time he wouldn't be going easy on them, the blue-clad ninja decided as he got free, and went to Donatello's side. His brother was currently standing on another collapsed pile of paper and was moving the sheets as if he were searching for something.

"Donnie, did you forget 'Part three' of our plan?" Leonardo asked in a playful way. "You know, Raph's favorite part of _any_ plan? Bust their heads?"

"I didn't forget it, Leo," Donatello replied, moving papers as if he were searching for something. "I'll explain everything to you later. Now help me find the ninja."

Leonardo arched an eye ridge, quite intrigued by his brother's words, but didn't ask any further.

"Fine," he agreed and was about to start helping his brother when he suddenly felt a deathly presence showing up behind him.

Leonardo reacted on pure instinct. He quickly spun around, wielding his sword, and delivered a blow. But as he delivered it, the young turtle instantly knew he had made a terrible mistake.

His blow hadn't been one to disarm or to stop his enemy.

No.

It had been a _killing_ blow.

Donatello could only see the horrified expression on his brother's face as the lethal strike landed on a ninja who was in the middle of a jump.

 _Poof!_ The ninja exploded into a puff of smoke and tore paper began falling all over the place.

The four siblings blinked repeatedly, baffled by the scene that had just taken place in front of their eyes.

"What the…" was the only thing they could say as they watched the little pieces of paper fall to the ground, and each of them caught one of those in their hands.

"What's… _this_?" Leonardo mumbled, narrowing his eyes.

"Mmm... it seems like some kind of paper," Donatello answered, examining his own piece.

"Paper?" Raphael asked, incredulously. "We were attacked by walking paper? Seriously? _Paper?_ " He stressed the last word, frowning, and tossed away his paper.

"Whoa, this is so cool, bros!" Michelangelo said, as he happily admired his piece. "Our opponents are no ordinary ninjas! They are _origami_ ninjas!"

"Huh? Origami ninjas?" Donatello repeated. "Well, I guess that does make sense — in a weird way."

"Well, guys, I say we should start shredding some paper!" Raphael said as he stomped one foot on the floor and ran towards the first ninjas that were arriving at their current position.

With a powerful jump, the leader collided full force with a lanky ninja that had just sprung off the ground. The ninja instantly met the same fate of his previous partner — that is, he became confetti.

When the leader landed, he turned around and looked at his brothers with a challenging smile.

"Come on, guys! You wanna miss the fun or what?" he asked before he began popping more ninjas.

Donatello exchanged a glance with Michelangelo, and both turtles took out their weapons, smirking. Then, they turned to Leonardo but found that their blue-clad brother wasn't paying attention to them because his eyes were fixed on the opponents that were arriving.

Leonardo let out a quiet laugh as he spun his odachi. His usual playfulness was gone from his face.

"Time for payback," he muttered in a low, dangerous voice. Then he darted towards the ninjas, moving at an incredible speed and only leaving trails of smoky puffs wherever he passed by.

Michelangelo laughed and Donatello just shook his head, amused, before both of them began attacking the ninjas.

Soon, the place was full of smoke, and tore paper could be found everywhere. The few ninjas who had chosen to retreat didn't have the chance to do so because the brothers quickly caught up with them and turned them into small bits of paper.

When the action finally calmed down, the siblings gathered around in the middle of the warehouse with a pleased look on their faces.

"Did we just do a great job or what, guys!" Raphael said, holding his hand up and smiling triumphantly.

"Yes, we did!"

"Yeah!"

"Oh, yeah!"

The brothers cheered and high-threed each other.

"I can't believe we've just faced AND defeated supervillains!" Michelangelo exclaimed.

"What I can't believe is that these 'supervillains' were made of _paper_ ," Donatello said, looking at the bits of paper spread over the floor. "To be honest, I can't come up with a plausible explanation for this fact."

"Well… _I_ can," Michelangelo confidently said, putting an arm around his genius brother's shoulder.

"You can?" Donatello asked, half-smiling. "A _plausible_ explanation?"

"Yes, of course, bro!" the orange-clad turtle said, grinning. "It's plausibleness makes it the most plausible explanation anyone can ever come up with! Wanna hear it?"

"I for sure wanna hear it," Leonardo whispered to Raphael, and the leader nodded in agreement.

"Okay, Mikey," the genius agreed after a few seconds of thought. "Surprise me."

"Two syllables, bro! MA-GIC!" Michelangelo exclaimed, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "Those ninjas were _magical_ origami ninjas!"

" _Magic?"_ Donatello repeated, arching an eyebrow. "Really, Mikey, you call that 'a _plausible_ explanation'?"

"Yeah, dude! How else can you explain that ninja-shaped paper was moving on its own, huh?" Michelangelo asked, looking at his brother with a charming smile. 

"I don't know," Donatello reluctantly said, "but there must be another explanation — a _believable_ one…"

Michelangelo sighed in a dramatic way.

"Dude, you must give magic more credit! It _does_ exist and I will prove it to you!" Michelangelo said, smiling, and picked up a bunch of formerly-ninja paper. "First evidence! Moving paper!" He put the paper on Donatello's hand. "Do you see any techy thingamajig that could have been controlling it? No? Me neither!"

Then he began walking in front of his brothers, as if he were a detective.

"Now, for my second evidence, I need every turtle in this place to recall their memories…" He looked at each of his brothers in the eye as a playful smile appeared on his face. "Ok, bros, I need you to tell me… who was the one who used to leave us a little gift whenever we lose a tooth?"

The three brothers looked at each other.

_Oh, boy…_

Was he throwing them off balance on purpose or what was their brother planning?

"I'm not hearing your answers, bros."

Raphael and Leonardo sighed.

"The Tooth Fairy…?" they awkwardly answered, and Donatello sent them an amused look.

"Aha! The Tooth _Fairy_!" He stressed the last word. "Fairies are _magic_ beings! See, Donnie? Magic has been present in our lives since we were children!" He made a little pause. "For my third evidence—"

"Wait, Mikey," the blue-clad ninja quickly said, putting a hand on the youngest's shoulder. "I'll help you convince Donnie."

Donatello half-smiled. What was Leonardo planning?

"Donnie, our brother here has given you two excellent pieces of evidence to support his theory, one from the past and one from the present," Leonardo began and Michelangelo nodded, glad that his blue-clad brother decided to play along as well. "I, on the other hand, will give you an example of magic that will happen in the near future."

"Okay, I'm listening," the genius said, trying to not roll his eyes. The glint of mischief in his brother's eyes made it clear his next words wouldn't be full of seriousness.

"Well, during this week you'll be able to witness some inexplicable events, in which Mikey's chores will get done without him actually doing them." He glanced at Raphael. "In other words, his chores will _magically_ get done."

"That's definitely one of my favorite examples of magic," Michelangelo said.

Raphael narrowed his eyes and smirked.

"You know, Donnie? I'll also give you a great example of magic," the red-clad turtle said, cracking his fingers. "It's an awesome magic trick in which I will _magically_ make two annoying little brothers disappear!"

The genius turtle only saw the eldest lunging at Michelangelo and Leonardo, who just laughed and began running around the warehouse.

Donatello rolled his eyes good-naturedly before turning his attention to the bunch of paper in his hand. Michelangelo did have a point. There was no evidence of any technological devices that could have remote-controlled the ninjas nor he could find a scientific explanation for paper moving on its own.

' _So… magic, huh?_ ' Donatello thought, arching an eyebrow. ' _Where did the logical part of the world go?_ '

The purple-clad turtle lifted his head and looked at his siblings. Raphael was chasing the mischievous turtles, yelling at them some threatening words, while Leonardo and Michelangelo laughed and stayed far enough from their eldest's arm's reach.

Donatello smiled and put the paper in a compartment of his battleshell. Finding the logic of today's events could wait until they were home, right? In the meantime, he would try to understand how magic worked.

"Hey, Raph!" Donatello called, and his three brothers looked at his direction. "Let me help you with your magic trick!" he said, turning his battleshell into a flying machine once more.

A smirk made its way to Raphael's face as he nodded, and Donatello couldn't help but chuckle when he saw his two other brother's faces.

They were _priceless_.

* * *

Some hours later, a peaceful atmosphere was reigning in the docks. All human activity had yet to begin, so there were no other sounds aside from the rhythmic murmur of the water and the occasional ship horn blasts that announced the arrival of a cruise ship.

However, there was another kind of atmosphere reigning inside the dockside warehouse...

A foot violently stomped on a pile of shredded paper, causing the little pieces to rise up in the air and fall all over the floor as a pair of emotionless eyes scanned the area.

A battle had taken place there, no doubt. A battle in which his ninjas didn't won.

The warrior gritted his teeth tightly as he repressed the angry roar that was about to escape from his mouth.

His ninjas, _defeated_! That _should_ _not_ be possible!

But it was. The remnants of his ninjas covering the floor were proof enough of such disgraceful fact.

_Arrrgh!_

A sudden burst of orange light bathed the walls for a few seconds as the warrior walked towards the warehouse's entrance with both fists clenched, not giving a hoot about the abrupt increase in the room temperature.

His plan had failed and now everything his Master had planned was going to be delayed. Worst of all, he would have to report his lord about this mishap and he was certain the Master was not going to be pleased after he heard the news.

The warrior huffed, inwardly cursing whoever had defeated his ninjas and swearing he'd make them pay for what they'd done. Then he looked up at the sky. It was still dark, but there was a faint light on the horizon, which meant he couldn't stay for too long on the surface.

He gave a last glance to the warehouse before he began his journey back to the Underground.

This would be the first time he would be returning empty-handed.

_But there wouldn't be a second time._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **_A/N:_ ** _First of all, thanks for reading! I hope you have enjoyed this chapter!_
> 
>  ** _About the story:_**
> 
> _Zukin_ and _Fukumen_ are the names for the ninja's hood and mask, respectively. And when Mikey said the things about the Tooth Fairy, well, he was just goofing around and Leo quickly caught on this, haha.  
> 
> 
> Also, Mikey's chores were done by all four brothers. And during that week there were several "soap foam" wars in which more than one turtle ended up with a really, really clean and bright shell. 
> 
> **_Author's babbling notes:_**  
>    
> This chapter was first published on September 2nd, 2018 on Ffnet. Wow! Time sure flies!  
> 
> 
> 1\. If you want to understand why Donnie loves tugboats so much (at least in this story), then I recommend you to watch the video "How tugboat works". (It's on Youtube and it's awesome!)  
> 
> 
> 2\. Funny thing, I naively thought this was going to be the first chapter's ending. I guess it would have been a really, really long first chapter, right?  
> 
> 
> Next chapter will be 'The bet'!


	4. The bet

A whole week passed after the warehouse incident without any other abnormal events occuring in the sewers, and thus the brothers' excitement about the strange, magical origami ninjas decreased as the days passed by.

It was not until a weekend morning that the subject of these weird ninjas was brought up to their attention once again.

The brothers were spending their free time doing activities on their own. Raphael was enjoying a live wrestling match that was being aired on the TV. Donatello was sitting next to his brother, fiddling with his small, newly-built machine and occasionally sparing a glance at the TV. Michelangelo, for his part, was sprawled on the floor, engrossed in drawing some comics of his own while happily humming the song he was listening to through his headphones, and Leonardo was in the back part of the living room, practicing with his odachi and doing some flips.

When the wrestling match ended, Raphael began flipping through the channels, hoping to find something interesting to watch. Images of cooking shows, nature documentaries and comedy shows flashed on the screen, but none of those shows were of his interest in that moment. Maybe it was about time to stop watching TV and do some weightlifting, he thought.

He was about to give up and turn off the TV when a familiar red picture flashed on the screen and almost made him jump out of the couch. He quickly pushed some buttons on the remote trying to find once again the channel were the picture was being displayed, and wondered if it had been just his imagination.

But no. It hadn’t been his imagination.

There, in the news channel, a red foot mark was taking up the whole screen _—_ the same mark the origami ninjas had painted on their heads.

 _"… strange sign is the only clue the police currently have in order to find the culprits. The authorities suspect it is the signature of a new criminal association since it has also been found in other recently stolen factories and warehouses—"_ the reporter was saying as different buildings began showing up on the screen.

Raphael frowned. What was happening? Had those thieves showed up once again? If so, why? What was their interest of stealing so many factories and warehouses?

Several other pictures of buildings were shown, and when the warehouse they had been in the last week was displayed, Raphael let out a low angry growl.

"Isn't that…?" Donatello began, looking at the screen in disbelief, his new invention momentarily forgotten in his hands.

"Yes, it is," Raphael answered in a low voice, clenching his fists. It seemed like the morons had dared to return to the warehouse and had stolen what they initially wanted.

The red-clad turtle couldn't help but huff in frustration. _Fine._ If those origami ninjas wanted to be shredded into tiny little pieces, then who was he to deny them their stupid wish? He was sure his fists would gladly grant it as soon as they made another appeareance and…

 _"_ Hiyaaa!" Leonardo's fighting scream brought him back to reality and Raphael took a quick glance to his younger brother before returning his attention to the TV.

_"… making this the fifth warehouse that has been robbed within a month. The police has reported that this time the culprits stole about ten tons of the stored paper in less than an hour—"_

"Haaa!"

_"… Strangely enough, there are no evidence of the criminals using trucks or heavy machinery to transport the stolen material— "_

"Hiyaa!"

Raphael repressed a growl. He wanted to hear the news report, but how on earth would he be able to do it if his brother was doing so much noise!

_"… We asked Chief Peterson about the situation and this is what he answered."_

_"I assure you, we are working as fast as possible to find these criminals and bring them to justice. I'm afraid I cannot give you much information about the current investigation and all I can say right now is that our intelligence has already found—"_

"Haa! Hiyaaaa!"

Raphael's eye twitched.

_That was it!_

"I'm trying to listen to this, Leo!" the eldest turtle said as he took one of the sofa cushions and threw it at his blue-clad brother. Leonardo reacted quickly, and lowered his head and body, thus avoiding being hit by the soft projectile.

Man! Why did it was always so difficult to strike his younger brother with a cushion? He seemed to have a sixth sense or something because he almost always dodged all of the cushions and pillows that were thrown at him!

Raphael looked at his brother and narrowed his eyes, frustrated. Leonardo, in turn, mirrored his expression. Both brothers held their gazes for a brief moment before the younger ninja got bored and resumed his own activities, though Raphael knew for certain that his brother was feeling slightly offended.

The leader crossed his arms, stubborness showing on his face.

_Whatever._

He would think about apologizing later, now he needed to pay attention to the TV.

_"… their whereabouts."_

_Wait. What?_

Had the police already found out the origami ninjas' whereabouts? Or at least a hint of where they could be hiding? If so, he needed to know! In order to beat them to a pulp, of course.

_"Well, there you have the Chief's response. In summary, this new criminal organization has stolen great amounts of paper and metal pieces directly from the factories and their warehouses, and now the police has found clues about—"_

"Hiyaaa—!" Leonardo's fighting scream distracted both Donatello and Raphael from the news. It had been really loud, but it had also been short-lived. And then it had been replaced with a surprised yelp, followed by the sounds of severals boxes and their respective contents falling on the floor and spreading over it.

_"… Hopefully they will be captured in no time. Now, in other news…"_

"Man, I couldn't hear what they were saying! Thanks a lot, Leo!" Raphael grumbled, irritated, as he stood up from the couch and began walking to where his brother was.

"You know, it's always my pleasure," Leonardo grunted in response as he took off from himself the boxes and magazines that had fallen over him. "And by the way, I'm fine, thank you very much for your concern."

"Oh, I know you're fine," Raphael casually said as he offered a hand to his brother to help him up. "If you weren't, the whole world would already know it by now."

Leonardo pondered what Raphael had just said.

Yeah, his brother had a point. Most of the times, when he got even the tiniest of the bruises he tended to make a whole drama over it and start saying things such as how he would not live to see another day. Michelangelo would play along with his act and then both of them would laugh at the annoyed expressions of their two other brothers.

" _Touché_ ," Leonardo finally said, shrugging. Then he took the offered hand and began standing up. "But in my defense— Whoa!" The young ninja voiced his surprise when he felt the strong tug pulling his arm and found himself in a headlock.

"And _this_ is for not letting me hear the news," Raphael said smiling as he gave a playful noogie to his brother. "You were really noisy, bro. Couldn't you, I don't know, tune down the sounds of your own game just for a moment?"

"Hey, I wasn't playing!" Leonardo protested as he tried to get free from the headlock to no avail.

"Oh, you were not?" Raphael smirked and gave another noogie to his brother. "Then what were you doing?"

"Well, while _you_ were spending your free time watching TV, _I_ was spending mine _fighting_. Not playing. There's a big difference, you know?" Leonardo replied cooly with a smile on his face.

"Fighting?" Raphael arched an eye ridge. "Fighting against who, huh?"

"I was fighting against the most terrible enemy anyone can ever cross paths with," Leonardo said as if he were the narrator of a movie, making with his hands some movements to give a dramatic effect to his words. "An enemy that everyone hates. An enemy that will consume your mind if you have your guard down. An enemy…"

"Yeah, yeah. Save your breath and just tell me their name, Leo."

"Boredom," his brother simply said, shrugging again. "The name's boredom."

"So let me get this right," Donatello said, stepping in the conversation. "You were spending your free time 'fighting', right?"

"Yep."

"Against boredom, correct?"

"Yep."

"Which, in other words, means that you were playing…"

"Ye… Wait, no! Not you too, Donnie!" Leonardo looked at his brother as if he had just betrayed him. "I wasn't playing, I was honing my fighting skills," he stated, crossing his arms.

"Well, in that case, why were you not 'honing your skills' in the dojo?" Donatello asked, half-smiling.

"Because the dojo is a place meant for training and improving yourself," Leonardo answered as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "And for that reason you must always show your respect for it. You cannot…"

Leonardo's voice suddenly lost all of its confidence and became an almost inaudible whisper. Nonetheless, Raphael was able to catch the words 'fool around' and 'play there only because you're bored.'

"Oh, sorry, brother, but I couldn't hear that last part. What did you say?" Raphael teased his brother with a huge, triumphant smile plastered on his face.

The younger turtle rolled his eyes.

"Okay, fine. You're right, I was playing," Leonardo said, getting free from the headlock and staring with a challenging look at his siblings. "Are you happy now?"

Raphael and Donatello exchanged glances and smiled.

"Heck yes we are," the eldest said at the same time both him and Donatello gave each other a high-three. That day had been very easy to make his brother admit he had been playing and acting childishly — something usually hard to achieve, by the way.

Leonardo narrowed his eyes and looked at his two brothers.

"Well, maybe it wasn't in the conventional way, but still, I was improving my ninja skills. And improvement is improvement," the young turtle defended himself stubbornly.

Raphael and Donatello couldn't help but chuckle, finding hilarious that their brother was still trying so hard to justify his childish behaviour.

Leonardo fixed his gaze on them.

 _So his brothers wanted to play, huh?_ Then, he would play too…

Quirking an eye ridge and casually leaning on the wall, he crossed his arms in front of his chest and a smirk showed on his face. He might had been playing, but he had also been paying attention to the TV _and_ he knew how his oldest brother’s mind worked.

"Laugh all you want," he began with a confident voice, "but next time we find those origami ninjas, you'll see how easily _I_ defeat _all_ of them."

" _All_ of them?" Raphael looked at him and shook his head, smiling. "Sorry, bro, that's not gonna happen."

"Why not?"

"Because I'll already have made confetti out of them before _you_ get the chance to fight them," the leader stated, plopping into the beanbag chair that was next to him.

"You never know," Leonardo replied, shrugging and keeping the smile on his face, "maybe I'll take all of them down before _you_ get the chance to fight even one."

"Yeah, doubt it," Raphael said, putting his hands behind his head, and looked at his sibling with an air of confidence. "But don't worry, bro, next time we find those ninjas, I'll let you defeat one or maybe two of them."

" _You'll let me?"_ Leonardo repeated, laughing. "That's the most hilarious thing I've heard in all day, big brother. If anything, I'll be the one who leaves some ninjas for you to punch."

Donatello saw Raphael chuckle and before he could hear Raphael's response to Leonardo's words he turned around and headed to his lab. After all, he knew how this situation was going to develop and he needed to be prepared.

As the genius passed by his youngest sibling's side, he patted him on the shoulder and then gestured at his other brothers. Michelangelo took his headphones off and looked at his siblings' direction. It didn't take him more than a few seconds to understand what was going on.

"Oh," the orange-clad turtle said and turned his head at Donatello, a mischievous smile on his face. "Do you think they will…?"

"Yes, they will," the genius nodded, smiling. "I'll go get my laptop."

"Okay, I'll go for a bag of chips!" the youngest said and in the blink of an eye he was running to the kitchen. Donatello chuckled and went to his lab.

When he returned to the living room, he found Michelangelo already sitting on a beanbag, happily munching on some chips while watching his siblings. The youngest quickly waved at him and motioned to him to sit on the beanbag that was at his side.

"Have I missed something?" the genius asked as he sat on the beanbag.

"Nothing at all," Michelangelo cheerfully answered, offering the bag of chips to his brother. "Up until now, Raph's said he's the strongest turtle in the family, so that's why he would be able to defeat more opponents than Leo."

"Well, he _is_ the strongest turtle, I'll give him that," Donatello said, taking some chips from the bag.

"Yeah, that's exactly what Leo said, but then he said stuff like 'strategy and skills are also important in order to win any fight,'" Michelangelo took a bunch of chips and stuffed them in his mouth. " _Then he added tha' he coulf defeat mohr ninjas tha' Aaph_."

"And I suppose Raph didn't agree."

The youngest turtle swallowed.

"Yup, he didn't. He told Leo he was saying a bunch of—" Michelangelo stuffed more chips in his mouth. "– _comphleet nonfhenfh_."

"I see," Donatello said, typing something in his laptop before he paid attention to his brothers.

"… it's obvious I'd defeat more ninjas than you, Raph."

"No way, Leo. I'd defeat more ninjas because I'm the best fighter."

"Best fighter?" Leonardo snorted. "How so?"

"I've got the most powerful attack and the strongest defense out of the four of us," Raphael proudly said. "Beat that, bro."

"Oh, puh-leeze! I've got the agility, the strategy _and_ the best weapon on my side, what else do I need?" Leonardo said, smiling and patting proudly the flat side of his odachi. "Besides, as I've already told you, just because you've got big muscles doesn't mean you're gonna automatically win _every_ fight."

"But my muscles will help me beat more ninjas than you, Leo."

"Uh-uh. I'm the one who would be able to take more ninjas down."

"As if you could…"

And there you have it, back to square one. Donatello shook his head. Knowing his siblings, they would keep their playful argument going on for a while before they…

"Fine, Raph, I'll tell you what: since you don't wanna believe my words, then why don't we make a bet?"

Donatello arched an eyebrow and Michelangelo's eyes widened.

Never mind. Their brothers had just got to _that_ point.

"Dude, I think that's a new record," the youngest whispered in his brother's ear. "They usually last for longer before they make a bet."

The genius nodded in agreement. They usually got to eat at least two bags of chips before their siblings began challenging each other.

"Make a bet?" Raphael smirked. "Heh, why not? Bring it on, Leo."

"Well, it'll be a simple bet," Leonardo casually said, running a finger along the blade of his sword and smiling smugly at his brother. "Whoever manages to defeat more origami ninjas within a 24-hour time frame will be the winner."

"Okay, fine with me," Raphael agreed, shrugging. "But how are we going to count the ninjas we defeat? Are we gonna count 'em aloud or what?"

"Good question, big brother," Leonardo said and turned at his purple-clad sibling. "I'm pretty sure Donnie could help us with that, am I right, Donnie?"

Michelangelo and Raphael also turned their heads at their genius brother. With three pair of expectant eyes now looking at him, Donatello couldn't help but let a confident smile show on his face. This _always_ happened whenever his siblings were in a competitive mood and made a bet.

"Well, I suppose I can make you a device with motion sensors that count each and every origami ninja you take down," the genius offered in a nonchalant way, yet his mind was already racing with different ideas of how he was going to build such device.

Leonardo smiled.

"That'd be great. Thanks, Donnie," he said and then turned to Raphael. "Any other question, dear brother?"

"Just one. When will the 24-hour time frame start?" the leader answered, cracking his fingers. He couldn't wait to find those clowns and bust their heads!

"Another excellent question," Leonardo said, a mischievous smile crossing his face. "Say, how about we find the ninjas' hideout? That way we'd be killing two birds with one stone: we'll be stopping the robberies _and_ we'll have the opportunity to see who wins the bet."

"I like your idea, bro," Raphael said as his grin widened.

"Sounds good to me," Donatello admitted and Michelangelo nodded vehemently with his mouth full of chips.

"And what will the winner get?" the youngest asked after swallowing the chips.

Leonardo tilted his head and glanced at his oldest brother.

"Raph, what would you like to get _if_ you win the bet?"

The leader looked at his brother and stroked his chin.

"What can I ask for?"

Leonardo shrugged.

"You can ask for pretty much anything you want, I guess."

 _"_ Anything I want, huh _?_ " Raphael repeated, and smirked. "You sure, Leo? I don't wanna hear you complaining when you lose."

"Of course, brother mine. You can ask for _anything_." Leonardo answered, waving his hand and closing his eyes. "Since I'm gonna be the winner, I don't have to worry about getting or doing whatever you ask for." He made a little pause and opened an eye. "But I'm curious… What kind of stuff can I ask for as my prize?"

Raphael chuckled. The implicit challenge carried in his brother's words didn't go unnoticed by him so, _obviously_ , he was going to face the challenge head-on.

"Imma be the winner, Leo," the leader stated, smirking. "But I'll indulge you: you can choose any prize you want, because, heh, _you're gonna lose_."

The younger turtle lifted an eye ridge.

 _'Keep on dreaming, Raph,'_ was what he was about to say when an idea popped up in his mind. His brother had just said he could choose _any_ prize, right? So he was going to seize this opportunity and get what he had been wanting for years.

"Very well, then…" Leonardo said, trying to play it cool. "I guess I know what I'd like to get as a prize." He leaned on his odachi and looked at his brother. "If I win the bet —which, of course, I will, no doubt—, you'll let me ride on your shoulders for a day."

Raphael's smile got instantly erased from his face and he felt as if a bucket of cold water had just been poured on him. He looked at Michelangelo, who had a surprised look on his face, then at Donatello, who had stopped typing on his laptop, and then he turned to Leonardo, who seemed oblivious to his siblings' reactions.

"No way," he finally said, folding his arms.

A flash of dissapointment crossed Leonardo’s face but it was immediately replaced with a smile.

"Come on, Raph, I'm not _that_ heavy, am I?" Leonardo joked.

 _Heavy?_ His brother, _heavy?_ What a joke! Raphael made an effort to suppress a laugh. The weight wasn't a problem _at all!_ He would easily carry his _three_ brothers and father on his shoulders if the situation called for it!

No, the teeny, tiny, little problem that came with his brother's request was that Raphael did _not_ like carrying someone on his shoulders. It made him feel irritable, uncomfortable, and —worst of all— _vulnerable_. And he was determined to never admit such embarrassing fact… again. He had admitted it just _once_ when he was younger and that time Donatello had told him that it might had something to do with him being a snapping turtle. And if he remembered correctly, Donatello had also said once that the fact of Leonardo constantly trying to get on his shoulders might had something to do with his brother being a red-eared slider…

Anyway, he wasn't going to do it _ever._ Period.

_But…_

His brother's previous words came back to his mind. ' _Since I'm gonna be the winner, I don't have to worry about getting or doing whatever you ask for._ '

Raphael huffed.

 _Man!_ Had he just partially —and unintentionally— admitted that his brother could win the bet by denying his request? What's more, _had he_ _gone back on_ _his word_? After all, he had already told his brother he could choose whatever he wanted as a prize.

The leader frowned. He was on the horns of a dilemma. He didn't like the idea of carrying his brother on his shoulders but he neither liked the idea of going back on his word. So what should he do?

Raphael got lost in his thoughts as he tried to come up with a solution to his dilemma.

But he wasn't the only one. When Leonardo saw his brother's scowl, he thought that, okay, _maybe_ he shouldn't have asked for that prize, but he had thought it was worth a try. Good thing he knew how to press the right buttons in order to get his brother's mind back again on their game and make him forget about this little mistake.

"You know, Raph? Forget it," Leonardo said, smiling. "I've got to think things through and choose a worthy reward. Since I'm going to win anyway…"

"I'm going to win, Leo," the leader stated, making up his mind. "You want me to carry you on my shoulders? Fine, I'll carry you _if_ you win…"

"No way! Then I wanna bet too!" Michelangelo exclaimed, trying to stand up from his seat. Donatello immediately nudged him on the side and sent him a warning look while shaking his head. "Uh, umm… But next time. Yeah, I wanna bet next time," the youngest quickly amended, taking heed of his brother's warning.

Raphael ignored his youngest sibling. In that moment, his full attention was on Leonardo.

"But if I win…" the leader began, a smirk making its way to his lips. He had come up with a solution that would make his brother stop asking for such annoying prize once and for all. "Oh, my bad. _When_ I win, then you'll have to carry _me_ on _your_ shoulders _for a day_."

Leonardo's smile froze on his face.

_Oops. Pressed the wrong buttons…_

The younger turtle's mind began racing. He was confident in his skills. He had the agility, the speed and the wits on his side. He knew he could easily take down more ninjas than Raphael. And… he also knew he would be doomed if his brother won the bet.

_Oh, boy…_

Why was his brother asking for something impossible? Leonardo wondered. Raphael surely knew he wouldn't be able to carry him on his shoulders, let alone to lift him up. So if he lost the bet, then his brother would be sitting on top of his shell for a whole day…A whole day! _That_ would be anything but fun for him.

He tried to push those thoughts aside but his other two siblings' rushed whispers weren't helping in any way.

"Donnie, do something! Things got out of control! I repeat, out of control!"

"I know, Mikey, I know! What can we do?"

Leonardo took a deep breath, trying to ignore their comments. Then he glanced at his red-clad sibling, who had a satisfactory grin on his face. It seemed like Big Brother was relishing in his little siblings' reactions.

"What's the matter, Leo? Cat got your tongue?" the leader snickered.

"Nope, here it is, see?" Leonardo answered, sticking out his tongue at his sibling.

"Then why aren't you saying anything, bro?" Raphael teased. "Worried about _losing_?"

Leonardo narrowed his eyes and smiled.

 _Right._ He shouldn't be worried about losing. After all, the odds, the luck and everything else for that matter were on his favor.

"Uh-oh, Donnie! Leo's going to…"

"Oh, he'd better not…"

"You're wrong, Raph. I'm not worried at all."

"Then you're agreeing with the terms _, little_ brother?" Raphael said, extending his hand to Leonardo.

"Pfft… Of course I do," the blue-clad turtle replied with a wide, confident smile on his face. "Because _I_ am going to win." With that statement, he took his brother's hand.

And as the two brothers shook their hands, the deal was closed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> During the next days a bonus chapter will be posted. I hope you're liking the story so far!


	5. Maybe it's because you're a snapping turtle?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _Here's the bonus chapter! Since this chapter is sort of a flashback, the dialogues are in italics._

**-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-**

**Bonus Chapter**

**-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-**

Some years ago, when the four brothers were just toddlers, it was a common sight to find them cuddling a lot. For example, whenever they were watching a TV show, the younger siblings used to snuggle up to their oldest brother, and whenever it was bedtime, they usually bunked together in a bed and happily talked with each other before sleep came and claimed the little boys.

It was, however, obvious the fact that Leonardo and Michelangelo were the ones who sought cuddling with their brothers the most, but for some unknown reason, Leonardo usually sought to cuddle on top of his brothers' shells. Michelangelo soon followed his brother's example and that was why Raphael often found himself surrounded by these two, who tried to climb upon his shell. Despite their best efforts, the younger turtles never reached their goal and always found themselves rolling on the floor, far away from their oldest brother.

But one fateful day, there was a dramatic turn of events…

The brothers were in the living room, each of them minding their own business. Donatello was reading a book about machines and things his siblings didn't quite understand, Leonardo and Michelangelo were running and chasing each other around the room while Raphael was sprawled on the carpet, playing with his toys. The oldest turtle didn't know why but he suddenly found himself circled by his boisterous brothers and…

No, wait, he _did_ know why. A few days ago, Leonardo had come up with the brilliant idea of a new game called "Let's Climb to the top of Big Brother's Shell". It was an innocent game with only two rules: they had to climb upon Raphael's shell and try to reach the top without getting shoved aside (bonus points if one of them got to the top when Big Bro was chasing the other unfortunate soul). And that day the pair of mischievous brothers decided it would be fun to play their little game.

And so, they had begun playing.

Since Raphael had always been bigger and stronger than his brothers it had been fairly easy for him to shove them aside once, twice, thrice… However, his siblings didn't get tired of trying and returned to his side, laughing and innocently thinking he was just roughhousing with them, as they usually played. Unfortunately, their oldest brother wasn't playing, so when he got fed up of their game, he began chasing Michelangelo, who just ran away laughing.

And in the middle of his chase, he felt it. A light weight quickly climbing upon his shell and finally placing itself on his shoulders.

" _Bonus points for me, Mikey!"_ Leonardo shouted, laughing and nuzzling his brother's head, unaware of the fact that his brother had gone rigid.

In that very moment, the only thought that Raphael had in his mind was that he was trapped… Trapped! And such feeling was something he didn't like in the very least, so when he recovered from his initial shock, he made a rough movement that sent Leonardo rolling across the floor with much more force than was necessary.

Such rough treatment was what triggered the longest and fiercest bickering Raphael and Leonardo had ever lived up until that point of their short lives, lasting for about four or five minutes. The _'you, meanie_ 's were thrown back and forth, and the most unkind threats a six-year-old could come up with were heard, such as not willing to share their cookies with the other one ever again.

Indeed, it was terrible.

Thankfully, the bickering came to an end due to Master Splinter's intervention and the two sulking siblings were sent to different rooms to calm down and think about their actions and words. The usually lively home became almost silent after that, and the only sounds came from the quiet whispers between Donatello and Michelangelo, who talked about what happened and agreed to go comfort their brothers when they calmed down.

* * *

When an _eternity_ passed by _-_ actually, half an hour or so- Donatello went to where Raphael was while Michelangelo went to look for Leonardo.

The little genius found his brother sitting on the bed of their room, all wrapped up in blankets and with a pout on his face. Donatello climbed on the bed and sat next to Raphael, and both siblings stayed in comfortable silence for a few moments before Donatello spoke up.

_“Wanna talk?”_ he asked in a soft voice.

Raphael sniffled, and shook his head. Donatello nodded and kept silent for a few moments, thinking about the things he wanted to say.

" _You know, Raph?”_ he finally said, _”_ _I don’t think Leo meant to upset you with his game.”_

Raphael rubbed his eyes and sniffled again. “ _Yeah…_ _I know, Donnie,”_ he said quietly and wrapped himself more in the blankets. 

Donatello looked down at his hands and began playing with his fingers. _“I also believe you didn’t mean to throw him away like you did,”_ he added softly.

Raphael didn’t say anything in response and Donatello understood his brother still needed some time to figure out his current feelings. So he waited. And even if there were no hugs or comfort words between them, he knew his brother was feeling a bit better just by having him by his side.

After a short pause, Raphael began talking.

“ _I know Leo was just playing…”_ he said, rubbing his eyes again. _“And I know I shouldn’t have got mad at him. We’re brothers. We play like this sometimes.”_ He sniffled. _“But I… But I…”_ His voice broke and he paused, trying to understand his emotions. He was frustrated and mad. But with whom? His brother? Himself? How could he know! Everything was just so confusing!

_“I didn’t want to push him like that!”_ he said, clenching his little fists. He was so frustrated! He would never do anything to hurt his brothers on purpose! But then… why? Why did his reaction was so violent in the first place?

And as if reading his mind, Donatello asked the same question. _“Then why did you push him?”_

" _Dunno,"_ Raphael mumbled in a brooding tone. _"I… I think I got scared."_

" _Scared?"_ Donatello asked and turned his head to look at him.

" _Yeah, when Leo got on my shoulders,"_ Raphael said, rubbing his eyes again. _"Didn't like it at all, and I don't know why."_

Donatello remained silent for a few moments while he searched for a possible explanation in his mind.

" _Hmmmm…,”_ he hummed, tapping his chin. “ _Maybe it's because you're a snapping turtle?"_ he ventured.

Raphael turned his head at his brother and blinked a few times in surprise.

" _Because I'm a snapping turtle?"_

" _Yeah."_ Donatello nodded _. "See, I don't like when someone pokes at my shell and that's why I like to wear this sweater,"_ the genius explained, gesturing at the oversized purple cloth he was wearing. _"I think it's because I'm a softshell turtle. Maybe you don't like to have someone on your shoulders because you're a snapping turtle."_

" _I see…"_ Raphael said, thoughtfully. It made sense, at least in his young mind. Then an idea came to him and couldn’t help but ask. _"Donnie, you think something similar happens to Leo and Mikey?"_

Donatello shrugged.

" _Dunno. Maybe?"_

They fell silent for a moment before the purple-clad sibling began voicing his thoughts again.

" _I think both of you should say sorry to each other. And you should tell Leo you didn't like when he got on your shoulders."_

" _But, Donnie, then he'll ask questions!"_ _Raphael said, alarmed._

" _And?"_

_Raphael quickly looked at the floor._ " _I don't wanna tell him I got scared…"_ he admitted in a barely audible voice.

" _Why not?"_

" _Because big brothers shouldn't be scared of anything, dummy!"_

And Donatello smiled.

" _Okay_. _I can talk to Leo if you want. I won't tell him you got scared."_

" _Promise?"_

" _Yup. Promise."_

* * *

From that day on, Raphael noticed a change in his mischievous brothers' behaviour. Michelangelo stopped trying to cuddle on top of his shell and Leonardo usually asked him if he could climb to his shell or if he could get a ride on his shoulders. And from that moment on, the younger turtle always got the same answer. A big, fat 'no'.

However, there were also times when Leonardo forgot to ask him for permission and just jumped on his back. Of course, he also forgot that in such times he always ended up rolling on the floor.

But it was okay. No bickerings started when that happened and the younger turtle often laughed when he got on his feet again.

Still, Raphael began wondering why Leonardo behaved in such manner. So one day he decided to ask his genius brother about the subject. After all, Donatello was very intelligent and he probably had an answer to his question.

" _Hey, Donnie,"_ he said, taking a seat next to his sibling on the couch. _"Why does Leo keep trying to get on my shell?"_

The little genius stopped reading his book and looked at his sibling.

" _Dunno,"_ he said, tilting his head. _"Maybe because he's a red-eared slider?_ "

Raphael pondered his brother's answer for a moment and then shrugged.

Fine. He could accept that as an explanation.

Yet, that didn't mean a little blue-loving turtle wouldn't find himself rolling on the floor many other times after that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ****  
>  _Author's babbling note:_   
> 
> 
> Snapping turtles are awesome. They are magnificent and powerful animals that, whenever they're on the ground, they walk as if they owned the place. Truly amazing reptiles. Love them. 
> 
> Also, in this chapter I hid _at least_ 3 different turtle behaviors. Can you spot them? If you want to give an anonymous try, you can send me a message [here](zinony.tumblr.com) or leave it in the comments. I'll probably be doing a post about it later this week if I see any interest and leave a link to that post next update. 
> 
> **_Here's a short but important note:_** If you get the chance to see a snapping turtle, please do not approach them, much less try to handle them (you might end up hurting yourself or hurting the turtle!). Just admire them from afar. Remember what documentaries always say: only trained professionals can handle wildlife. (This advice goes for all wildlife) 
> 
> I hope you've liked this bonus chapter! See you next chapter!


	6. Analysis and Tests: Test #1

“NO! Oh, no, no, no! No, you won’t, bro!”

Panicked exclamations, frantic sounds of unmerciful button mashing, exasperated grunts and—

_BOOM!_

—mild explosions were the usual sounds filling the living room whenever the siblings decided to spend their evening playing video games. And considering all the hard work they had been doing during the last few days along with their brothers, it was no surprise that Michelangelo and Raphael had decided to chill out a little bit and start playing one of their favorite games —a multi-leveled action-adventure game with several mini-games and cool rewards, courtesy of their genius brother, naturally.

Right in that moment they were in the middle of a Battleship-based mini-game and, truth be told, things were getting a little bit crazy. Moving all around the room, making faces, mimicking their avatars’ movements and bumping shoulders with each other as they tried to outcompete one another, both siblings were having the time of their lives! Of course, who wouldn’t? The game was really fun and the perks given at the end of the mini-games were sweet! plus, whoever won most mini-games before dinner would pick the pizza toppings that night.

_BOOM!_ An unexpected explosion made Raphael flinch and when he opened his eyes, he was relieved to see that his game lives were still unaffected.

“Ha! You missed, Mikey!” Raphael exclaimed, smirking, before restarting the furious button mashing, determined to win the mini-game.

“Dude!” Michelangelo said, his tongue stuck out in concentration and eyes scanning the screen as he chose his next wild move. “Where did you hide your ships?”

“Hid ’em where you can’t find ‘em, little bro,” Raphael replied, his voice filled with the confidence of someone who knew victory was close (though in reality it wasn’t the case, because both siblings were in a tie).

“Hmmm… where I can’t find them…?” the younger turtle mused for a moment before a mischievous grin crossed his face. “Well, bro, then it’s time for me to use my _secret_ blue power-up!”

“Secret blue power-up?” the oldest asked out loud as he moved to the right, imitating his game avatar, before glancing sideways to his brother. “There’s no such thing in this game, Mikey,” he said, the experience of having played that game so many times making him feel sure about his statement.

“Oh, yeah, there _is_ , bro,” Michelangelo replied with a playful voice and glancing over his shoulder. “And let me tell you, it’s an A-MAZ-ING power-up! Trustworthy! Infallible! Accurate! Flawless! You name it, bro! My power-up’s got all of that and more!”

Raphael chuckled. He knew his brother was exaggerating, but since he wanted to keep their ongoing banter, he chose to play along.

“So where’s this oh-so-incredible power-up, huh?” the leader asked, teasingly. “I wanna see it in action.”

“And you will, bro,” the youngest said, jumping slightly when a sudden explosion took him by surprise. Oh, his brother had almost hit one of his hidden lives! It was time to get serious and go for a counterattack! “You just… gotta… wait and see…” And his fingers began pressing expertly the buttons of his controller. 

“See what?” Raphael smirked after a few moments of not seeing anything remotely resembling a power-up. “You’re just bluffing, Mikey.” 

“Really, bro?” Michelangelo asked with a not-so-innocent and _definitely_ mischievous knowing voice. “ _Am I?_ ”

Raphael rolled his eyes, smiling. _Of course_ his brother was bluffing. He was sure there was no such power-up in the game, so there was no need for him to worry about it, right?

Well… _Wrong._

“If I were you…” a too familiar voice suddenly said behind their backs, making Raphael nearly drop his controller.

_Man!_ Since Leonardo had been so quiet during the time they had been playing, the leader had almost forgotten his blue-clad brother was also in the living room!

Without hesistation, Raphael snapped his head to the direction the voice had come from and glared at his sibling, who was lazily laying on his back on the couch reading a book.

“Don’t!” he said, pointing his finger at his brother as a clear sign of warning.

“I’d aim at…” Leonardo continued, not taking his eyes off his book and blatantly ignoring his oldest brother.

“Don’t you dare, Leo!”

“One of the bottom corner tiles…”

“Leo, I’m warning you!”

“Specifically, the one from the left side,” the blue-clad ninja finished, turning the page of his book. Immediately another explosion was heard and Raphael couldn’t help but groan when he saw one of his game lives fade away.

“Woo-hoo!” Michelangelo cheered, pumping a fist to the air. “Thank you, amazing power-up!”

That earned him a chuckle from Leonardo and Raphael just sighed. He should’ve expected something like this from the mischievous duo.

“Man, I thought you weren’t paying attention to our game, Leo,” Raphael said, plopping in the nearest beanbag.

“And I wasn’t,” Leonardo replied behind his book.

“Then how do you do that?”

“Do what, exactly?”

“ _That,_ ” Raphael said, pointing at the screen, clearly referring to the fact that his brother had revealed the hidden position of one of his game lives to Michelangelo.

Leonardo lowered his book and looked at his sibling for a moment. Then, he just shrugged.

“Call it a hunch, if you wish,” he said and raised his book again.

“Leo…” Raphael began, shooting him a skeptical glance and ready to argue that that wasn’t even a real answer, when Michelangelo poked his arm playfully.

“See, Raph? Told you my secret power-up was infallible,” he said, giving his red-clad brother his biggest and best innocent smile. “It doesn’t matter how he does it, what does matter is that I AM GOING TO WIN!” he said, pumping a fist to the air. “Now, come on, bro!” He tugged his brother’s arm. “Let’s finish the game!”

Raphael shook his head, a smile spreading on his face as he thought that he shouldn’t be yielding to his brothers’ trick but whatever, and raised to his feet.

“Fine,” he agreed, “but you’d better not use your so-called ‘power-up’ again, okay?”

“Can’t promise you thaaat…” Michelangelo sing-songed happily as the button mashing resumed. “After all, I unlocked the super secret and amazing blue power-up that—“

“Can be used only once per game,” Leonardo interrupted distractedly, making Michelangelo pout.

Raphael chuckled and was about to restart the game when something from his brother’s previous boast caught his attention.

“Hey, Mikey, you said you’d ‘unlocked’ _this_ power-up.” He pointed at Leonardo. “I wanna know how you ‘unlocked’ it.”

“Easy, bro, I got it because I’m the youngest,” Michelangelo proudly said, puffing his chest out. “Right, Leo?”

“Yeah, that’s right,” his brother answered absently and Raphael smirked, an idea instantly forming in his head.

“So if you it because you’re the youngest,” he began, his smirk becoming wider, “then _I_ can get one because I’m the oldest, ain’t that right, Leo?”

Both younger siblings reacted in a blink of an eye with such statement. Michelangelo turned his head around sharply, eyes widening with fear as he waited for his blue-clad brother’s answer. Leonardo, on the other hand, kept hiding behind his book, but Raphael knew that Leonardo’s attention was way too far from said book and was currently considering what he’d just said.

Leonardo lowered his book once more and looked at his brothers for a few moments, who were looking at him in return —Raphael with a smirk on his face and Michelangelo mouthing several “ _No, please_ ”s.

“Sure, why not?” he finally said before returning his attention to his book.

“Yeah!” Raphael cheered while Michelangelo’s eyes widened even more. “Now, let’s use this power-up!”

“No, Leo, no! Please, don’t!” the youngest pleaded, even though he knew it was useless.

“Aim at E3,” Leonardo simply said behind his book.

And Raphael did so, to Michelangelo’s despair.

_BOOM!_

A young and innocent digital life blinked several times in the screen, announcing its death was closing in.

“Noooooooo!”

“Yes!”

The life agonized and blinked once, twice more, before it faded away, leaving a shocked Michelangelo staring numbly at the screen.

“I’ve been betrayed…” the youngest muttered in disbelief, dropping to his knees and pausing the game. “Betrayed… By my own brother!” he exclaimed in a very dramatic way, placing his hands on his chest as if he had just been shot. Then he let himself fall on his back and began doing dying noises.

Leonardo glanced briefly at him and silently laugh at his brother’s antics before returning to read his book, and Raphael just kept watching the scene in amusement.

“Goodbye… oh, cruel world!” Michelangelo said before sticking out his tongue and going still.

There, now he was “dead”. The red-clad turtle couldn’t help but wonder if being extremely dramatic over little things was a trait shared by all younger brothers. He looked at his blue-clad sibling, who was muffling his laughter with his hand, then back to Michelangelo, who remained motionless in the floor, and then remembered the times when the roles had been reversed.

Yeah, probably it was.

Raphael rolled his eyes in a good-naturedly way and went to his orange-clad brother’s side.

“C’mon, Mikey,” the leader coaxed his brother as he patted him on the head, “let’s finish the game.”

“I can’t, bro,” Michelangelo pitifully said, opening an eye. “Can’t you see I’m dead?” He asked, closing his eye and sticking out his tongue again.

“Oh, c’mon, bro,” Raphael said, nudging him on the side. When his brother didn’t move, he sighed and lifted his brother from the floor. Then he whispered something on his ear and Michelangelo instantly came back to life.

“Count me in!” he mouthed and both brothers nodded in agreement.

Meanwhile, a blue-loving turtle was still immersed in his book. Since it was really entertaining, he had focused all of his attention on it, hence why he had ignored the fact that his siblings had gone quiet. However, when he felt a change in the atmosphere, he lowered his book and narrowed his eyes…

_Something_ was amiss. His instincts were telling him so.

Without wasting any precious time, he closed his book, sat up straight and began scanning the room.

His brothers weren’t playing video games any longer, so where were they?

He was about to stand up when a sound behind the couch got his attention and…

“Revenge!” Michelangelo suddenly cried, jumping from who-knows-where and trying to tackle a quite startled Leonardo.

The blue-clad turtle let out a surprised yelp and managed to get out of his sibling’s way by quickly getting on his feet and jumping over the furniture, which made Michelangelo land on an empty couch.

“Hey, my revenge!” Michelangelo complained from his spot and started chasing his brother, who was laughing.

“Sorry, but you’ll have to catch me first if you want your revenge!”

“Oh, you bet I will, bro!”

“Pfft! No, of course you won’t,” Leonardo laughed, dodging his youngest brother’s new attempt to tackle him. “You’ll never take me alive!”

“Maybe I won’t, bro” Michelangelo replied, rolling on the floor and darting towards his brother again. “But!”

“I will!” Raphael exclaimed, jumping from behind the door and tackling Leonardo. With a low thud, they both fell and began rolling on the floor, and Michelangelo quickly joined the roughhousing.

“Agh! No! Let me go!”

“Never!”

“Yeah, surrender yourself!”

“No way!”

_Pwuff! Pwuff! Pwuff!_ The sounds of a cushion repeatedly hitting someone and several grunts were heard as they kept rolling on the floor.

“Ack— Stop moving so much!”

“Get off me! This is not how you two should treat an amazing blue power-up!”

“And do you think we care!”

_Pwuff!_

“Well, you should!”

The brothers went rolling, struggling, and squirming all around the living room, occasionally bumping with the furniture and dropping some ornaments. When they finally came to a stop, Leonardo found himself in the bottom of a turtle pile. That… was _certainly_ not something good (at least for him), so he made a last attempt to squirm out from his brothers’ grasp. Needless to say, his efforts were futile, so he just sighed and resigned himself to the fact that he had to face whatever revenge his brothers had in mind.

“We’ve got you, bro!” Michelangelo stated in a playful voice. “Now you must pay for your crimes!”

The blue-clad turtle just looked at him and tilted his head.

“Umm… So… paying for my crimes, you say?” he asked, raising an eye ridge. “Any chance my savings will do?”

Michelangelo grinned mischievously. And then he slowly shook his head.

* * *

Donatello exited his lab, a bag with his newest inventions on his shoulder and both a small device and a screwdriver in his hands. Even though his eyes were fixed on said device and his hands were expertly giving it the last tweaks with the screwdriver, his mind was far, far away, pondering about certain things he just couldn’t understand. He had the data and had spent quite some time analyzing it, but he —tweak— _still_ —tweak— _didn’t_ —tweak— _get_ _it!_

The genius sighed. These were the times when he wished that ancient proverb were true: “ _Two heads are better than one_ ”. Having two heads would probably help him find faster the answers he’d been seeking for a while. But also having two heads would be bizarre. _And_ disturbing. He shuddered at that thought. Good thing the proverb wasn’t meant to be taken that way.

_Ahem._ Well, returning to his original point…

‘Two heads are better than one’ was a good proverb. And what made it better was that Donatello not only had two, but _three_ other heads available in the Lair to help him solve the problem that had been lingering in his mind for some time now. And said heads were in the living room right in that moment, if the laughter that was coming from it was a hint he could go by.

"Guys," he said, stepping into the room, "I need some help with…"

He stopped dead on his tracks, the scene in front of him making him highly reconsider his previous thoughts.

“…‘ve already told you, I just know!” Leonardo was saying, squirming between Raphael’s arms, who was holding him from behind.

“Do you buy his explanation, Raph?” Michelangelo asked with a huge grin of satisfaction showing on his face. He was standing a few inches in front of Leonardo, who was eyeing each of his sibling’s movements.

“Nah,” Raphael shrugged, “not in the least.”

“You heard the boss, Leo,” Michelangelo said, showing his empty hands to his trapped brother.

Leonardo’s eyes widened.

“No! I can’t take it anymore!” was what he could say before Michelangelo started tickling him again, and Leonardo couldn’t help but burst in laughter. “St– stop!” he begged between laughs. “Please, stop already!”

“What’s happening here?” Donatello asked arching an eyebrow, not really surprised by what he was seeing.

“Nothin’. Don’t mind us, bro,” Raphael calmly said, smirking, as if having a younger brother locked in his grasp was really “nothing” —and probably it was, considering they usually played like that.

“Yeah, we’re only administering some justice,” Michelangelo said, not giving his brother a break from the tickles.

“Donnie! H-help!” Leonardo said, still laughing. “Please! They’re– they’re torturing me!”

“Nuh-uh, we’re not,” the youngest shamelessly said as he continued tickling his brother. Donatello innerly smiled at his mischief, though he placed a hand on Michelangelo’s shoulder to let him know that he should stop tickling Leonardo.

Michelangelo obeyed —but not before he gave the last round of tickles to his brother—and stepped aside. Raphael, on the other hand, kept holding his brother in his arms and Leonardo just let his body relax, trusting his brother to carry his full weight while he recovered from the tickle attack.

Donatello looked at each of his siblings’ faces as he evaluated the situation. His gaze went from Michelangelo to Raphael and then to Leonardo. It was obvious that his youngest and oldest brothers had ganged up against their blue-clad sibling, but what could have been the cause that had led them to do such thing?

The genius half-smiled.

“Okay, Leo, what did you do this time?” he asked, the tone of his voice showing that this wasn’t the first time something like this had happened.

Too tired to answer with words for the moment, Leonardo just looked at him.

“ _Why are you assuming I’m the one at fault here?_ ” was the message his eyes conveyed and Donatello shrugged.

“Statistically speaking, you’re the one who does pranks and jokes the most, so I’m going by probability, sorry.”

His blue-clad sibling narrowed his eyes.

“Haven’t you heard the phrase ‘innocent until proven guilty’?” Leonardo asked in a deadpan tone.

“Well, in my book, it’s ‘guilty until proven innocent’, Leo,” the genius teased his brother with a smile, which earned him a glare from Leonardo. Donatello chuckled. “Just kidding. Now tell me what happened.”

“This time I did nothing!” his brother defended himself. “I was just being an amazing power-up and—“

“Wha— _Power-up?_ ” A puzzled look crossed Donatello’s face. Leonardo had already lost him with his explanation. The genius let out a breath and shook his head. “You know what? Nevermind, I don’t need to know. Continue with your game.” He said, encouraging his brothers with hand motions, and went to the couch.

“Donnie, no!” Leonardo exclaimed, squirming a bit when Michelangelo approached to him once again with wiggling fingers, but his genius brother didn’t spare him a glance.

“I guess I’m just gonna sit here and play with my _brand-new_ babies,” Donatello said in a casual tone but loud enough to catch his siblings’ attention. It was obvious he was baiting their curiosity. He opened his bag and began placing his high-tech artifacts on the couch. “Since you’re too busy to see _and_ test _these_ …”

There was a low thud and a grunt, and suddenly Donatello found Michelangelo and Raphael standing by his side, a curious look on their faces. Leonardo’s _“Thanks for letting me fall, Raph”_ complaint was heard, followed by Raphael’s chuckle, but that didn’t distract Michelangelo from admiring his brother’s newest inventions.

“Ooohh… What are _these_?” he said, crouching to get a better view of the small devices that were on the sofa’s cushions. There were two small, coin-shaped metallic objects, several patch-like pieces and something that resembled a headset. He reached for one of the devices and began examining it from all angles, trying to understand what it was.

“These, my brothers,” Donatello began, a proud smile on his face, “are the inventions I made in order to help you with your bet.” He paused and gave Raphael and Leonardo a stern look. “And since you’re the ones who are interested in defeating lots of origami ninjas, I was expecting you two to be training or, maybe, doing _something_ to prepare yourselves, but instead you’re _playing._ Really, guys?”

“In my defense, I was training my mind. With a book,” Leonardo said, still on the floor. Then he sat up and tilted his head, thinking about his previous actions. “And then I practiced my cushion hitting.” He reached for the cushion that he had used in their roughhousing and threw it at Raphael, who didn’t bother to avoid it at all. “See? I still need to practice some more.”

“I’m sure that’s gonna be _so_ useful,” Donatello said in his sarcastic-but-also-deadpan-characteristic voice.

“You never know, it might be,” Leonardo joked, catching the returning cushion that had been aimed at his face.

The genius was about to dare his brother to mention _at least_ five scenarios where a pillow fight could prove to be useful in crime fighting when he felt a strong hand placing on his shoulder.

“Don’t worry, bro,” Raphael said, a confident smile on his face. “We’re ninjas. We’ve got the skills to defeat those clowns in pajamas.“

“No offense, but don’t you think you’re being a little bit overconfident about your skills?” the genius asked, arching an eyebrow.

“Nah,” Raphael simply said, smirking. “Now, when you gonna tell us what are these for?” he asked, gesturing at his brother’s new inventions.

Donatello took a deep breath and then exhaled. He knew his brothers should take this a bit more seriously, _but_ he _could_ let the issue go just for a moment, right?

_Right._

“Well, I’m gonna tell you right now,” Donatello said, flashing a confident smile as he retrieved the devices from Michelangelo and Raphael and placing. “Let me show you these first,” he said, taking the patch-like objects. “Okay, I’m gonna need a volunteer.”

“Oh, oh! Me! Pick me!” Michelangelo said excitedly, raising a hand and doing little jumps.

Donatello smiled and motioned him to get closer, which Michelangelo happily did, and the genius began placing the patchish devices on his younger brother’s arms, legs, plastron and carapace. Once he finished with his task, he took a step back and looked at Michelangelo, who was running a finger along one of the devices with a mesmerized expression on his face —probably because of the device’s softness and smoothness to the touch.

“Okay, I think you’re ready,” Donatello said, surveying his work and nodding, satisfied. “Now move around and tell me how you feel, Mikey.”

Michelangelo shook his head affirmatively and, with a huge smile of excitement, started doing several backflips and jumps around the living room, flexing and stretching his arms and legs in different ways and moving as wildly and swiftly as the wind itself, laughing and enjoying himself as he tested his brother’s inventions.

“Dude! It’s as if I didn’t have thingamajigs on me!” Michelangelo happily said as he spun in mid-air. “And you know what’s the best part?” he added, landing with grace in the couch, “It’s how they feel to the touch!” He let himself fall on his carapace and began nuzzling a patch with his cheek. “Oh, how I love it…” he mumbled contently.

Donatello smiled and took out his tablet from his bag.

“Light enough so it doesn’t interfere with the user’s movements, achieved,” he began murmuring as he took notes in his tablet. “Flexible enough so that it adjusts to any body surface, achieved. Good adhesion so that it doesn’t fall off when the user’s moving, achieved… Comfortable enough so that the user is happy,“ he spared a glance to his smiling brother, “achieved.”

“ _Super_ achieved, bro,” Michelangelo said, still nuzzling his brother’s invention.

“Okay, first test was a success. Now, I’ll proceed with the explanation,” Donatello said, taking another patchish thingy and showing it to his siblings. “ _These_ are devices that will help you know how many origami ninjas you defeat. They’re equipped with motion sensors capable of detecting _only_ the opponents with the same characeristics that the origami ninjas have—for example, body temperature and size. Once the sensors detect an origami ninja, they’ll keep track of the ninja’s movements until the ninja is defeated and then they’ll record the defeat in the inner digital counter they’ve got. Said counter will be activated when the 24-hour time-frame start and will deactivate once the time runs out. Then I’ll retrieve the data of each of these devices and process it, therefore we’ll know who’s the winner of the bet. Any questions up until this point, guys?” he asked, looking at his brothers.

“I… don’t think so…?” Leonardo said, unsure, as he examined one of the devices. Obviously, he _did_ have some questions, but the problem was that he had to figure them out first.

Raphael shook his head.

“Mmm… no, not really.”

“Nuh-uh. Everything’s clear, Donnie,” Michelangelo said, giving his brother a thumbs-up and smiling.

“Good. We can start with the second test, then. You two, please, go grab your weapons,” Donatello said to Leonardo and Raphael.

“Our weapons?”

“Why do you need our weapons?”

“I need them to test some things. Now, please, go get them,” Donatello said, not giving further explanations to his brothers and motioning them to do as they were told. Leonardo and Raphael looked at each other and shrugged before turning around and going to their rooms, where they kept their weapons.

“And what about me, Donnie?” the youngest inquired, looking at his sibling. “Am I not gonna take part in this test?”

“Well… strictly speaking, yes, you _could_ participate _,_ but since we’re gonna watch some videos after the test…”

“We’re gonna watch videos?” Michelangelo asked, his eyes instantly brightening up at the mere thought of the videos his brother was talking about were actually movies. ”Dude, then we’ll need popcorn! I’ll go make some!” he said and ran to the kitchen.

As soon as the genius was left alone in the living room, a little smirk made its way to his face.

And if there was also a glint of mischief in his eyes, there was nobody to notice it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **_Author's notes:_** _Honestly, I'm really proud of the first part of this chapter. It's one my favorite scenes I've written. I hope you've enjoyed it as much as I do._  
> 
> 
> _We've also caught up with all the chapters posted on Ffnet, so I'm quite excited because next chapter (along with other chapters, including the final one) will finally be able to see the light after been sitting on my computer for more than a year! Crazy, isn't it?_  
> 
> 
> _On a side note, I know last chapter I said I was going to leave a link to a post about the turtle behaviors hidden in the bonus chapter. I haven't had much time to write it yet (been busy with RL stuff), but I'll get to it when I have more time. Meanwhile I'll just gently post this chapter here and hope you enjoy it._  
> 
> 
> _See you next chapter!_


	7. Analysis and Tests: Test #2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter has some flashbacks. Just like in the bonus chapter, the dialogues from the flashbacks are written in _italics _.__

**_ A few minutes earlier… _ **

_“So… what’s the test about, Donnie?”_ Leonardo asked as he eyed the patchish devices that were covering his body and his odachi.

 _“Oh, you’ll see soon,”_ was his brother’s nonchalant answer coming from the farthermost wall, where he was calmly leaning on, next to the door frame.

* * *

**_Now. _ **

_Swoosh!_

Leonardo ducked, barely avoiding the dark blur passing by his side at an astonishing speed, making his mask tails flutter a bit before falling over his face.

Oh, he should’ve seen this coming! How did he not notice it before? The large empty space in the center of the living room because the furniture had been moved to the sides, the huge white crosses painted on the floor in the middle of the room, his gut feeling telling him something was about to happen, his genius brother not giving enough explanations and staying as far away as he could from the center of the room…

Leonardo breathed out with enough force so that his mask tails could get off his face.

 _Of course_ he should have seen this coming. Those had been enough clues for him to know his usually serious sibling was planning to do something like _this_ , but he didn’t realize it until it was too late. Sure, if he had realized it earlier, things would have been _way_ different!

Well… probably not, but hey, one can dream, right?

Another rush of wind passing now behind his back made him jump to the front in order to avoid getting hit by another dark blur. He rolled on the floor and when he sat up again, an unsurprised look showed on his face.

Oh, he _definitely_ should have seen this coming!

_Swoosh!_

* * *

**_Earlier… _ **

_“Please, stand on the cross marks, guys,”_ Donatello instructed as he pressed some buttons on his techy wristband. His brothers did as he said, but not without looking at their surroundings. They weren’t quite sure why there was so much empty space in the room for this test or why some crosses had been painted in the middle of the room.

 _“Hey, Don, I gotta ask,”_ Raphael said, looking at the crosses beneath his feet, _“what’s with these marks?”_ He couldn’t help but feel these were _oddly_ similar to the ones usually shown in cartoons. He pushed away that thought, and instead looked back at his sibling. _“And why are you standing over there?”_

 _“It’s all part of the test, Raph,”_ Donatello answered, not taking his eyes off of his wristband.

 _Okaaay…_ Raphael and Leonardo shared a wary look. So far, their brother had only been offering vague answers to their questions, so _what_ kind of test was this going to be?

Donatello noticed the silent exchange between his brothers and sighed.

 _"Okay, let me explain what you’re going to do. For this test I need you to move as if you were in a real fight,”_ he began explaining.

 _“You mean like sparring?”_ Leonardo asked.

 _“Not exactly,”_ Donatello answered. _“For this test you won’t be sparring with each other.”_

 _“We won't?_ _”_

 _“No, you won't. Just punch, kick, jump, do whatever you usually do when you fight. You know, the usual stuff,”_ Donatello explained _. “And while you do that, I’ll be recording each of your movements in order to gather some data and see if I need to do any further adjustments to the devices. Any questions?”_ He looked at his brothers, who just shook their heads. _“No? Well, in that case, you can start whenever you want, guys.”_

* * *

**_Now. _ **

_Swoosh!_

Raphael let out a low growl of frustration and clenched his fists.

 _Man!_ Why— _swoosh!_ — was it so difficult—s _woosh!_ —to punch— _swoosh!_ —the stupid— _swoosh!_ —things! Each and every time he tried to land a blow on those dark blurs, they somehow managed to avoid his fists and move away! Almost as if they had their own minds!

_…_

Okay, nevermind. Considering his genius brother had built them up, these things _could_ have a mind of their own, right? The oldest sighed. Guess he shouldn’t be really surprised if that was really the case.

Anyway! Once he found a way to strike them, he’d—!

A bump on his side distracted him from his thoughts and made him turn his head. Leonardo was now leaning on his arm, looking at the blurs with narrowed eyes.

“Seriously, Raph, you had to ask for punching bags?” Leonardo asked with an underlying hint of amusement in his voice despite the concentrated look on his face.

“Hey, I didn’t know Donnie was going to trick us,” Raphael said as he tried to punch a passing blur that, once again, avoided his fist.

"For the record, I did not trick you, guys,” Donatello said from his spot, “I just told you what you were supposed to do for this test.”

“Yeah, you said we had to move like we usually move during a fight,” Leonardo said, stepping away from Raphael in order to look at his genius brother. “You never said anything about punching bags.”

“And I never said there weren’t going to be punching bags in this test either, so don’t blame me for your own assumptions.”

“Wha— That’s not a even a valid argument and you know it, Donnie!” Leonardo said before sensing another punching bag and dodging it.

Donatello shrugged, a half-smile showing on his face.

“Eh, I beg to differ,” he said and ignored the glare Leonardo sent his way. “Anyway, I do remember telling you that you had to punch the punching bags and I’m not seeing you doing that. So, please, go ahead and punch them— _if_ you can, that is,” he added in a nonchalant way, but low-key throwing a challenge at his brothers.

Leonardo smirked. Had his brother just thrown a _challenge_ at them? _Of course_ he had. Well, in that case he was going to prove him he could beat it! After all, he had already ellucidated the behavior of the punching bags and had come up with a plan.

Without further ado, he took a fighting stance and waited. And as if on cue, the bags immediately changed their trajectories and went charging directly at him. When the first bag was about to collide with him, Leonardo made good use of his speed and flexibility to dodge it with ease while at the same time delivering a strong roundhouse kick on his target. The kick connected full on the middle of the punching bag, which just shook a bit before quickly fleeing away from the blue-clad ninja.

“You mean like this, Donnie?” Leonardo said, turning around to face his genius brother with a smug smile. Donatello just lifted an eyebrow, but didn’t say anything in response.

Raphael noticed his siblings holding their gazes, probably trying to figure out what the other one was thinking.

Uh-oh. That was not good. He knew very well that competitiveness ran in the family’s veins, and even though he and Leonardo were the ones who liked competing the most, Michelangelo and Donatello usually didn’t miss the opportunity to compete if the situation was of their interest. And now that Leonardo had returned the challenge to Donatello, Raphael knew his genius brother would probably accept it because it involved his pride and joy: his beloved inventions. So, as the leader and big brother he was, the best thing he could do was to stop this before the situation got out of his hands, right?

“Hey, Donnie,” Raphael said, “I’m sure what Leo tried to say was that we would’ve liked a heads-up for the punching bags. They took us by surprise, that’s all.”

Donatello tilted his head as if considering his brother’s words. Then he looked at Raphael.

“You know what, Raph? I think you’re right,” Donatello said with gentle eyes.

Raphael innerly smiled, quite satisfied. It had been fairly easy to get the situation under control.

“I should have given you a proper heads-up,“ Donatello continued, interrupting the leader’s thoughts. “That’s why I’m going to tell you this.” The genius smiled. “Heads-up.”

_Huh?_

“Or, more precisely,” he pressed a button on his wristband, “ _heads down_.”

A soft hum of gears starting to move was heard as whatever kind of machinery hidden in the ceiling came to life once again and Raphael’s eyes widened.

_Oh boy…_

_Clink!_

* * *

**_ Earlier… _ **

Sparring was, with no doubt, one of Raphael’s favorite activities. He enjoyed having an opponent with whom he could exchange blows! Block attacks! Outsmart their moves! And why not? Win against them!

Feigning a fight with an invisible enemy or doing katas? Thank you, but... nah, thank you. He’d rather pass on those. Not that he had anything against those activities, though. It was just that…

_“Hiya! Haa!”_

… those were mostly a Leo thing, not his.

Raphael swung his fist for the umpteenth time and repressed a sigh. Man, this test was quite boring!

_“Haa!”_

Well, _rephrase:_ this test was quite boring _for him._ The leader spared a glance at his younger brother, who was currently striking an imaginary enemy with his odachi. The triumphant smile on Leonardo’s face told Raphael his brother was already immersed in one of his games. Raphael couldn’t help but roll his eyes and smile. He didn’t quite understand why Leonardo enjoyed so much sparring with imaginary enemies, but he was glad that at least his brother was having fun with the test. If only there was a way for him to have fun too…

The leader stroke the air with his tonfas and did some kicks here and there before an idea crossed his mind. A punching bag could make things more interesting for him! Not only he’d have a target he could land punches on, but he would also be training his strength. He just needed to ask Donatello if he could use a punching bag. Knowing his brother, he would probably say yes. (And now that he thought about it, he was surprised his brother hadn’t offered him that option before starting the test.)

“ _Hey, Donnie,”_ Raphael said, turning around to look at his genius sibling, “ _this test would be better if there was a punching bag we could use, don’t ya think?. Any chance you have one?_ ”

A glint of mischief sparked in Donatello’s eyes.

“ _What a coincidence, Raph,_ ” the genius said, smirking. “ _I was thinking_ exactly _the same thing_ ,” he said before pressing a button on his wristband.

_Clink!_

A metallic sound coming from the ceiling made the brothers look up and, in the blink of an eye, a dark blur passed through the existing gap between Raphael and Leonardo. Said thing had been so fast that it had left a rush of wind behind itself —and a pair of baffled brothers too, for that matter.

“ _Wh_ _—_ _what was_ that _?_ ” Leonardo stuttered as his mind tried to figure out _what the heck_ had just happened.

“ _It was a punching bag,_ ” Donatello casually said, smiling. “ _And, as its name suggests, you were supposed to punch it.”_

“Punch _it_?“ Raphael asked in disbelief. “ _You’ve gotta be kidding us, bro. We could barely see that thing!”_

“ _Come on, guys, you’re ninjas. You’ve got the necessary skills to punch them,_ ” Donatello said, making an allusion to Raphael’s previous words. Then he pressed another button on his wristband and flashed them a mischievous smile. “ _Don’t worry if you missed the first one, there are plenty more of them for you to punch…_ ”

 _‘Clink! Clink! Clink! Clink! Clink! Clink!’_ were the sounds that could be heard as several hidden hooks released the cables they had been holding, letting their loads fall freely in a pendulum-like way.

 _‘Oh, boy…’_ was the only thought both Raphael and Leonardo had in their minds when they saw the numerous dark blurs coming their way...

* * *

**_ Now. _ **

Leaning against the wall with a chill pose and a ghost of a smile on his face, Donatello kept taking notes on his tablet as his brothers faced the new set of punching bags that had come down from the ceiling. Raphael was doing fine. Of course he was, how could he not? With his superior strength, it was easy for him to contain the several heavy punching bags that went towards him and to throw them away. And from the smile on his face, the genius could tell his brother was having fun with this part of the test. Just as expected. After all, this was _his_ thing.

Leonardo, on the other hand…

Donatello squinted his eyes. Yup. His brother wasn’t doing _that_ fine. Leonardo was currently squished between several punching bags, and was having a hard time trying to wriggle his way out of them. 

“Donnie!” Leonardo exclaimed, using all his strength to push aside one of the the heavy objects and then threw himself to the floor. Not in a very ninja-ish way, mind you, but at least that way he could keep himself safe from ridiculously heavy bags trying to collide with him. He looked at his genius brother. “Why did you turn the living room into a deathly battlefield?”

Donatello shrugged.

“You’ve got your hobbies, I’ve got mine.”

Leonardo sent him an unamused look and Donatello just chuckled.

“Just kidding. It’s all part of the test, Leo. As I’ve already told you, I’m gathering some data and I won’t get it if you keep talking to me,” the genius said. “So, please, brother, get your mind on the game and fight the punching bags.”

“That’s easy for you to say,” Leonardo mumbled under his breath, yet he got on his feet and took a fighting stance.

“Come on, Leo,” Donatello said, resting his chin on his hand as a heavy bag began moving towards Leonardo. “Don’t tell me they’re _that_ hard to punch.”

“They’re much slower than the previous ones, so no, punching them is not the problem,” his brother said, dodging the punching bag and throwing some kicks at it at the same time. “The real problem is that they’re way sturdier _and_ heavier. Plus, they tend to attack in group.”

“And?” Donatello asked, watching how his sibling was attacked once again by the sturdy object. “Is that a problem? Because Raph’s not complaining about any of those facts.”

“Well, that’s because Raph _is_ Raph,” Leonardo retorted between gritted teeth. He was trying to stop the hellish object of doom that was pushing him backwards, but, _ugh_ , it was so difficult! “He… can take… these things… easily…”

“Oh, so that means you _can’t_?”

Leonardo ignored the question. It wasn’t like he couldn’t deal with these things, it was more like it’d be easier for him if he had his sword with him. Unfortunately, he had dropped his odachi when several punching bags collided with him simultaneously some minutes ago. However…

He glanced sideways to see how far away his odachi was from him. _Hmm…_ it wasn’t _that_ far. He could grab it if he rolled on the floor…

“Hey, Leo,” the genius said, interrupting his sibling’s thoughts. “I think this might help you,” he said, throwing something at his brother.

Leonardo reacted instinctively and stepped aside in order to avoid whatever his brother had thrown at him. Ironically enough, he got in the way of _another_ punching bag and…

 _Pak!_ Leonardo was sent to the floor in an ungraceful way and Donatello winced inwardly. _That_ wasn’t supposed to happen. In fact, his brother had been supposed to catch the…

_Pwuff!_

…small and heavenly soft cushion that had just hit an unintended green and red target, a.k.a: Raphael’s face.

_Uh… Oops?_

“Leo!” the oldest said, taking the cushion off his face and frowning at his mischievous brother.

“It was Donnie!” Leonardo answered from the floor.

The leader turned and looked at his genius sibling, who was smiling sheepishly.

“Donnie!” he began, but a heavy bag colliding with him on the side cut him off and threw him to the floor too.

Donatello flinched. Oh, he was _so_ going to pay for this. For _all_ of this. And, truth be told, he’d rather not, thank you very much. Maybe his brothers would forget this little prank of his when he explained everything to them?

 _‘Uh-huh, suuure’_ , he thought skeptically while he pressed another button on his wristband. Oh, well, he didn’t regret any of it. After all, everything had been in order to get his point across. But if he could get away with this, that’d be very much appreciated, thank you. Good thing he knew how to distract his brothers from any vengeful thoughts that may cross their minds. And if that didn’t work, he could easily make a run for his life, because, hey, he wasn’t standing next to the door just for nothing.

“Get ready for the next part of the test, guys,” he announced and the current set of heavy bags retreated back to the ceiling while a new one came down from it with their respective ‘ _clinks’_.

Raphael and Leonardo quickly got on ther feet and took their fighting stances—obviously they wanted to be prepared for whatever surprises these new bags may bring with them. This time, however, the punching bags were moving in an average speed, so once they were close enough for the brothers to punch them, both siblings swung their fists at the bags and…

_Poof!_

The cloth covering the bags got torn apart and a zillion of tiny papers fell to the floor, making Leonardo and Raphael watch the scene with wide eyes as they connected the dots.

“Wait…”

“Isn’t this…?”

“Yes, you guessed it right,” Donatello said. “Now, if you please, continue with the test so I can gather the data I need.”

Raphael and Leonardo exchanged glances and smirked.

_This was going to be fun._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **_Author's notes:_** In a moment of sheer boldness I updated the tags. If I'm being honest, this story is going to be a mix of a little bit of everything, but it leans more toward to the action/adventure/slice of life genres. The only exceptions are the romance and tragedy genres; we don't usually do those in this house, haha (except under very, very specific conditions)  
> 
> 
> Also, thank you to everyone who has been leaving kudos and comments, for bookmarking, subscribing and for silently reading this story, It really made my day checking the stats!  
> 
> 
> **_About the story:_** At last! This chapter saw the light, haha. Some important hints were dropped in this chapter regarding what was bugging Donnie in the last chapter. If you have any theories, I'll be really happy to read them.  
> 
> 
> Next chapter is the third and last part of Analysis and Tests, and we'll be having some answers!  
> 
> 
> **_Side note:_** This weekend the turtle behaviors will be posted and I'll edit the story to put a link here. My original plan was to update the story and make the post on the same day, but for personal reasons I decided to update the story first.   
>  **Edit: **I thought I had figured out Tumblr. Flash news to me, I still haven't, haha. I'm still working on that post. Sorry for the inconvenience!****
> 
> ****I hope you've enjoyed this chapter! See you next update!** **


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